PS I'm (still not) over you
by velvetsins
Summary: When the capital of the Takahashi Enterprises goes down due to a series of past scandals, Sesshomaru has two choices: he either apologizes publicly or marries a human woman of his father's choosing. What he didn't expect was to meet a woman of the past he's sworn to forget, but was unable to. At each encounter, it gets clear he isn't over her yet. [SessRin x AU/AH x Rated M]
1. I – Beauty and Beast switch places

**Hello xD**

 **I know most of you are expecting an update for Mating Policies (others are expecting Ghost of Me) but I didn't have enough time to write for the past few days. I also planned on updating my ByaRuki fanfics this weekend, but my dog got sick and I had not much time except for taking care of him.**

 **This fic is one of my old SessRin fics, my first fic for them, and is updated on Portuguese, currently ON HIATUS, but this weekend I suddenly felt like revising it and since I had most part of it translated to English, I was like why not? xD**

 **It's an AU, set in Japan, nowadays. It's inspired by some kdramas about second chances at love. So you know… Well, I think I'll leave further explanations for the second AN. See you there.**

 **Again, keep in mind English is not my first language and it's not betaed. So you know…**

 _Engawa is an external corridor in Japanese styled houses._

 _Fusuma are sliding panels that serve as both doors and walls Japanese styled house. They are usually richly decorated._

 _Genkan is a place in a Japanese house in which people remove (and put on) their shoes before entering the house._

 **Disclaimer: Takahashi owns InuYasha, I own this plot and the OCs. All brands and places here mentioned are real and I don't own them.**

 **Warning: OOCness.**

 **Happy reading!**

* * *

 _PS I'm (still not) over you_

 **I – Beauty and Beast switch places**

* * *

"Explain yourself."

The stack containing three newspapers of huge appeal and two tabloid magazines fell with a thud over the CEO of Takahashi Enterprises' oak desk.

Sesshomaru raised his eyes from the profit report he was calmly reading till then, now buried under the pile of different newspapers, just to look at the imponent figure of his father.

"InuTaisho," he murmured, as if demanding an explanation that could not be further delayed.

He never said _father_ while working. He always treated him as formally as he could. He despised the mere idea that people could believe he reached the top only because he was the son of the illustrious and great InuTaisho. He was, above everything, a man that believed in meritocracy. If he were where he was now — on the top — it was because he deserved it. Rather, he earned it.

"I demand an explanation, Sesshomaru."

In silence and not even slightly bothered by the angered — and poorly restrained — tone of his father, he shifted his eyes to the newspapers over his desk.

It read:

 **SCANDAL: HEIR TO THE TAKAHASHI ENTERPRISES BREAKS UP WITH HIS FIANCEE AFTER LEARNING OF HER PREGNANCY.**

If InuTaisho did not know his son so well, he would say his golden eyes widened slightly. Briefly.

"This?" He shrugged. "It is no more than a plain lie thrown by the _Nikkan Gendai_. Besides, it is old news. Kagura and I already dismissed it once."

InuTaisho raised an eyebrow.

"You haven't seen all of them."

Already sure he could not be any more surprised, Sesshomaru opened one of the most important newspapers of the country. In the first page of _Asahi Shimbun_ it read:

 **BREAKING: TAKAHASHI ENTERPRISES' STOCKS FALL DOWN.**

In the subtitle there were more information:

 **According to the investors, past and actual scandals of its CEO justify the decision: "company is no longer reliable."**

He did not widen his eyes, he did not complain or reacted in a visible way, the only thing the great demon did was closing his strong jaw in a fierce manner.

While Sesshomaru counted long years, he did not seem to be more than 33 human years old, and so he presented his age to anyone who asked: 33, the age of Jesus Christ or any other bullshit people wanted to associate to the _mystical_ number.

However, in that moment, he looked much older. Tiredness took over him.

He had had a horrible night and an even worse morning. For so many years he tried to end the toxic relationship he had with Kagura, but the woman insisted on not giving up on him. Once, she said she was pregnant, then she had a miscarriage — as if yokais were so fragile to the point of losing a pup that way. _Pathetic_ —, then the promises of undying love and a disease that was miraculously cured.

If it was up to him — to his liking — he would have put two holes in her forehead — not that it would kill her — and get rid of her once and for all, but whenever he tried, a huge scandal came up his way and screwed his so dreamed freedom. And there was nothing that Sesshomaru cherished more than the impeccable image of his Company. Perhaps watching the Takahashi Enterprises dominating Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Fewer gave him more satisfaction than watching himself as the powerful CEO of one most known financial companies in Asia; being crowned for the third time in a row as the Entrepreneur of the Year or making an appearance in events in which his company were to be featured for.

However, the scandals got to undermine the respect he and his father took years to achieve. The prestige was now walking far away and if the Takahashi Enterprises could still enjoy from the spotlights,it was because of his father — the great InuTaisho, always _the great and magnificent_ _InuTaisho_ —, promised far better days were coming their way. Also because of the fear Sesshomaru instilled.

Fear, not respect.

While the demon knew fear was one of the bases of any hierarchic relationship, the businessman inside knew that fear inspired betrayal.

And Sesshomaru never forgave betrayals.

 _The Wall Street Journal Asia_ , one of the most specialized newspapers in economy,boasted:

 **TOKYO STOCK EXCHANGE OPENS DOWN. SHARES OF TAKAHASHI CO. FACE AN ABRUPT FALL.**

In the subtitle they buried once and for all the image of the young CEO.

 **Investors warns: Takahashi Enterprises are no long reliable. Members of the director's board are going to ask for the resignation of the actual CEO, Takahashi Sesshomaru.**

A low growl emerged from Sesshomaru's chest. With tremendous strength, he ripped the newspaper with his deadly claws, leaving it tatters. Poison dripped from them, corroding even the desk made of noble wood. As if it was not enough how chaotic his breakup with Kagura was proving to be, with those unnecessary scandals that made his head throb, he still had to deal with the fact that at dawn he would become even more useless than his half-brother, a _half-breed._

For the last six years and half, almost seven — he could never forget something that made him wretchedly weak —, at each waxing gibbous, Sesshomaru, the great demon as powerful as his father, would lose all his supernatural traces and become — to his profound disgust — human.

 _Pathetic._

Golden eyes closed, unaware of his father's intense and watchful stare, he threw the stack of papers aside, barely missing his younger brother.

"Calm there, _bully_."

"InuYasha!" Both turned to the man that had just entered the office.

"Get out," InuTaisho ordered, without shifting his eyes to look at the younger son. He kept his attention on Sesshomaru, facing him seriously.

"I just..."

"You heard him, _half-breed_ ," Sesshomaru hissed between his teeth.

The teasing made InuYasha angry.

"I just came to say that the press is down there and that the council is pressing for an immediate meeting, _pedigree."_

None of them replied to the teasing. Father and son continued to stare at each other rather intensely.

"If I were you..."

"But you aren't, are you, half-breed?"

At the same time the insult reached his ears, the hanyō got ready to strike back. He did not think through, he just said what he knew to hit his half-brother.

The relationship between Sesshomaru and InuKimi was not one of the best, but if there was something he did not put up with was with those who thought to offend her, no matter how much prone he seemed ready to criticize her himself.

"Son of a bi—

Before he could even finish his sentence, Sesshomaru was over him, his arm pressed against his half-brother's throat. InuYasha dug his claws on his forearm, trying to push him away, unsuccessfully. At least, he managed to make him bleed. Droplets of blood stained his immaculate white dress shirt.

"Enough, both of you! Stop if before I force you to." InuTaisho's low and authoritative voice split up the two immediately, even if they continued to stare at each other distrustfully. They were ready to jump on each other's neck if the need arose.

"Can we discuss it as the civilized men we are? Or will I have to watch my sons fighting like two mangy dogs?"

 **#**

Rin sighed before the school principal. She placed her head between her hands and thought about crying, but she knew it would lead her anywhere.

"I don't know what to do, Kikyo."

The school principal smiled empathically at her.

"His aikido classes didn't work."

"I heard he can defeat even the older boys," she replied with a half chuckle.

They were longtime friends. Kikyo, Kagome, Sango and her. While Kagome got married to the important director of the Takashaki Enterprises, Rin was… — she did not even know how to put it, _lover_ maybe, even though some part of her still clung to their past relationship. It was more than carnal — girlfriend maybe, of the actual CEO, Takahashi Sesshomaru. Sango was engaged to the perverted photographer Miroku and Kikyo was a widow. She was once married to Naraku — former owner of an artistic house, now under the command of Suzuki Onigumo, to whom Rin worked for.

Some speculated that she had murdered her own husband in cold blood — she had never loved him, it is true, even if they had had a son together; the boy was now the same age of her Hiraku —, but the biggest bet lay on the Takahashi brothers. It was believed the for once — and for the first time —, they joined to defeat a common enemy.

A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of Sesshomaru killing someone so coldly. Perhaps it was because Naraku was, just like her son, a hanyō. But if Kikyo, his wife, did not care, why should she?

She was still in Holland, pregnant, when she learned of his mysterious death. Once she worked for the renowned _Rijksmuseum_ and with her Japanese ancestry, it was difficult not to know of the most influencers for the world of arts in her country. Naraku's death was a huge blow for everyone in their midst. Needless to mention how shocking it was to know it was a suicide.

At the time, with her ties seized with her birth land, it was almost impossible to know what the police decided. Homicide or suicide? Sesshomaru being his butcher or not, did not matter that much. It would not be difficult for someone as important as himself to get rid of such accusation and to buy the legal system to his favor.

She shook her head and turned to the topic in hands. To think about Sesshomaru, Naraku and the unfolding of a closed case would add nothing to her.

"What I am to do with him? My baby boy became a bad boy before his time."

"Early adolescence."

"Six years before? He is only six now. He is to be seven soon!" She closed her eyes and breathed through her nose. "He's just a baby… _My baby._ "

"A hanyō baby." Kikyo cut in. "Obviously you know he is stronger than his classmates. And considering his father…"

Rin did not have any more strength to speak, which did not mean that the commentary about Hiraku's father did not make her shiver.

Since she came back to Japan, to make visits to the Principal's room was almost a routine. Hiraku was always in the middle of some fight — he was trouble —, invariably, he ended beating his classmates.

"And it does not help that children keep calling him _half-breed, without father, little devil and dumb demon."_

Rin frowned. Dumb demon? She did not understand... Hiraku was one of the most brilliant kids of his age. He barely could count, _true_ , he always complained about how much blurry numbers looked to him — to which she believed at first to be myopia, but soon she learned it was dyscalculia —, but he knew how to write and read perfectly. Hiraku would be brilliant in any area of his choosing.

However, as much as he felt confident in regard to several things, it always affected him greatly. It did not help that Kagome had let out that his father was extremely smart and that he worked with numbers. Hiraku aspired to be just like his father and having dyscalculia…

Not to mention the fact that he was hanyō, with so little in the world — almost a taboo — and that he had accent. Having lived almost his entire life outside, in the Netherlands to be precise — where she met Sesshomaru and had a torrid romance in the sympathetic and cosmopolitan Amsterdam —, and being less than a year back to Japan it was to be expected that the boy spoke funny.

But to joke about something that affected her boy so greatly… It was too cruel, even for children.

"Rin…" Kikyo dragged her attention back to herself. "You know what I think."

She gulped.

"No…"

"Yes," she was firm. "You cannot hide the truth from him forever. Hiraku deserves to know. Sesshomaru deserves to know."

"He never wanted to have anything with his son."

"You are being irrational."

She sighed.

She knew it. Sesshomaru did not abandon her pregnant. They had an agreement and she even tried to contact him, but… She never got to talk to him. Bit by bit, she settled to live her life in Holland without him.

"These children are rude."

"Rin, you don't live in Netherlands anymore. It's usual to have single mothers there, but here it is still an absurd. You know it!"

"Misogyny slapping me greatly…" She sighed. She hated, for the first time, her birth land. "I pay my own bills. Hiraku has always lived fairly well in Holland. His friends never judged him because of that. Maybe what these children need is some—

"We are talking about Japan, Rin. It's not some country you can pay for your diesel with sex."

"It doesn't work like that!"

"But that's how people think it works. Some mothers think you are bad influence." She cleared her throat. "A prostitute."

Rin stared at her, horrified. She even tried to speak something, anything, but words failed her.

"I-I…"

"Think about our proposal, Rin… I know it's not the best, but… You whether tell him, or… Get yourself a boyfriend. Hiraku needs a male figure in his life more than ever.

 **#**

There were flashes everywhere.

All renowned reporters were at the Press conference summoned by Sesshomaru that afternoon.

The talk with his father and InuYasha was not one of the best. If his memory did not fail him, he had been pressed by both of them like crazy. And if there was something Sesshomaru hated, it was to be pressed.

He was never the hunt. On the contrary. His instincts of Hunter fired wildly every time he was cornered.

The meeting with the council was brief; he did not let anyone speak. _The situation shall be resolved,_ he said. How and when was none of their business. Sesshomaru was not a man whom people demanded explanations.

Now, in front of reporters in the main Auditorium in the Takahashi building, he faced everyone with a half smirk on his lips. There were only two occasions in which he smiled genuinely. One of them was related to be on top and the other…

It was best not to think about it.

His father's ultimatum had irritated him greatly.

 _You whether apologize publicly or go on a date with a woman, ningen, of my choosing._

InuTaisho knew why Sesshomaru hated humans. He knew that after Rin he did not want to see any _ningen_ woman, even if his life depended on it. And there he was, putting his son between the devil and the deep blue see.

His smirk grew bigger as he heard the reporter of the same tabloid that ruined his reputation that very morning.

"Then, what you mean is that the renowned model Kobayashi Kagura is in a relationship with another man?"

Sesshomaru almost did not manage to disguise the smirk that wanted to take over his lips.

Kagura, _that bitch,_ believed she could ruin his career, but who was the one to end up ruined in the end?

"Kobayashi Kagura has been cheating on me for the last months."

 _Cheating…_ the word still brought a bitter taste to his mouth, but Sesshomaru swallowed his pride, aware that it was the best way to deal with the situation. It is… returning the spell to the witch in an even powerful fashion. If Kagura knew how to use the press, the same could be told about him.

He would never admit it loud, but those photos saved his life.

What could be more shocking than the irresistible heir to one of the biggest companies in the East being cheated on by his longtime fiancée?

And even if Kagura did nothing of it, any woman that had the minimum respect for herself would not get caught in a car with a stranger, kissing his face. Certainly not a committed woman.

The rest is history…

All Sesshomaru needed to come up with was a defeated face and let the press fill the gaps with their sensationalist stories. Especially when this guy resembled the hated hanyō that passed away years before. Kagura and Suzuki Onigumo... It seemed his ex-fiancée knew very little how to use her brains.

At first, he thought about letting people believe she was crazy, but from crazy to unfaithful…

He pursed his lips into a thin line. Kagura would barely see what was coming to her…

From the corner of his golden eyes, he looked at his father. InuTaisho stared at him with deep horror. His need to smirk grew.

He did not need to get out on a date with a pathetic human. He solved the problem with Kagura by himself, and look, he did not even need his father's help!

 **#**

Rin looked at the wine the maître brought. _Bordeaux_ always made her recall their trip to France; the sunny afternoons in the Parisian city and the sensation of Sesshomaru's avid lips against hers.

She took a deep breath and walked towards the big windows in the restaurant.

How pompous…

She did not even know why she accepted that dinner in the first place. With a stranger nonetheless.

Oh yeah… Her friends — and what friends she did have — convinced her it would be nice to meet someone. Hiraku needed a male figure in his life, after all.

Well, she could not even think about the remaining option.

The idea of seeing Sesshomaru again — and to actually talk to him — to _tell_ him they had a son together terrified her.

She was a fool. She still loved Sesshomaru and the very thought of being in the same room with the man, _demon,_ she loved without having her feelings returned was simply torture.

Yes.

She knew.

He never loved her.

It did not matter he said the words while they made love in Versailles. Exchanged vows of undying love in the heat of sex were null. It was just that… sex, desire… _Lust._

He said so himself when they broke up and Rin knew he did not even to. Sesshomaru grew distant little by little and when they were back to Holland came the confession.

 _I have never loved you. Demons are incapable of love._

Fool, naïve and silly Rin would probably have said something as foolish as _I can love you for both of us,_ but he had already left, saving what little remained of her dignity.

Weeks later came the sudden waves of morning sickness and the confirmation of what she already suspected: she was pregnant.

She tried to contact him, obviously, but Sesshomaru did not answer. It was impossible to reach him. She tried one last time as she woke up — and to her profound despair — and realized she was completely transformed.

In her eagerness to reach the mirror, she cut her hand with a glass, but the wound was healed within seconds. Facing the reflecting surface, Rin screamed in horror.

Instead of her raven hair, there was silvery tresses. Cinnamon eyes gave way to golden orbs and long claws pierced her skin as she thought herself with little care.

She tried to contact him desperately and it was with surprise that she noticed he actually answered her, the usually deep voice heavy with sleep — something uncommon for the lover that need so little sleep. However, instead of the expected _hello_ there was no word. The call went dead and she could not reach him anymore.

Rin closed her eyes as she recalled how much she cried that day. Sesshomaru was the only one who could answer her question and tell her why she looked like an inu daiyokai, but he did not answer her.

He never did.

With each passing day, she gave up.

After a while, she learned that at each waxing gibbous, she would get to transform into a full demon. She did not know the real reason behind it, but she speculated that it was somehow related to the fact that she needed strength to protect her child in the absence of their _alpha_. As she saw Hiraku becoming a human for the first time, she was sure of it.

Whenever Hiraku became human, Rin became yokai.

The canonical similarity to Sesshomaru made her cry herself to sleep several nights, till she woke up in the next day and realized she was human again. At each passing moon, she grew used to this new fact. In the end, she was grateful she could transform whenever her son needed her the most.

She knew that even human, she would draw forces everywhere to protect Hiraku if the need arose, but she felt safer knowing she was as stronger as Sesshomaru when her son was in his weakest days.

Nevertheless, to be so alike to her ex-lover made the process of forgetting him — so hard already — even painful and complicated. Of course, he was not her last, but he was certainly the only one she loved.

She sighed.

No.

She was there to give herself a new chance at love. Perhaps it worked this time.

Rin looked at herself in the windows and praised herself. Sango did an excellent job with the make up and the hairdo. Kikyo was on point with the dress.

The magenta color highlighted her slightly tanned skin.

 _Magenta_...

The same color of Sesshomaru's markings. They spread to his royal cheekbones, wrists, his powerful biceps and the hips she loved to wrap her legs around whenever they made love.

Cinnamon eyes widened at the thought.

No.

She could not do it.

Did she really think she was fooling someone besides herself? She could not meet another man. Not today. Not now. Certainly not in the same Japan in which Sesshomaru lived and stamped covers of newspapers and magazines alike, be it as the businessman of the year or his epic scandals.

Hiraku did not need a male figure in his life. What he needed was to be away from that misogynistic country that blamed her for being a single mother — something her son could not be blamed for.

Her friends would have to forgive her.

Rin would go back to Europe. Her loved and sweet Amsterdam where nobody judged her for being who she was. Where the memories of Sesshomaru were sweet and not bitter as they were in Japan. Where everything would remain platonic and she would probably never run into him.

Shaking her head, she turned on her heels and walked to the exit, without realizing that accompanied by the maître, the haughty man she did not expect to meet had just passed by her.

 **#**

Sesshomaru stared at the restaurant doors in which he was to meet the human chosen by his father. Surprisingly, he did not expect his father to arrange the meeting right away.

 _Human…_

He wanted to know what InuTaisho had in his head to believe he would accept to go out with a human for more than once.

There was a single reason why he accepted that meeting — date — and it was because he would hate to apologize for his council. He had already done it to the Press and — happily — destroyed Kagura's career. He would simply not go as low as to apologize to the old hags.

Obviously, no one expected him to speak so badly of Kagura, but he was sure no one would believe his ex-lover in case she tried another scandal. The advantages of being man, rich and handsome in Japan…

But his father, the great and ethical InuTaisho gave him an ultimatum. He whether accepted the date to the human, or he would give him out himself to the Press, saying his eldest lied about his fiancée. Sesshomaru knew it would be the end of his career.

He was cornered once again.

The only human he had ever had a relationship and could put up with was Rin, the one he had a torrid romance back in Holland for two years.

And he got rid of her as well. He frowned at the thought that different from the others, he did not break up with Rin because he was tired of her. On the contrary, he became too much attached to her.

 _Passion…_

 _Love..._

The inu daiyokai that used to arouse overwhelming passion in others, suffered just the opposite with Rin. He closed his golden eyes at the remembrance of her succulent lips against his; of her soft skin and the responsive body under his... And finally, her smile… The smile he had fallen madly in love with.

Being such a master at manipulating others, Sesshomaru knew quite well the everlasting and disastrous effects love could have over someone. It gave power to the loved one... And he could not, _under any circumstance,_ let any woman have such effect over him.

Not a full demon. Not a human.

Sesshomaru would rather die to admit he was in love.

Before he could lose himself to such human and _useless_ feelings, he broke up with her. He did it in the best of fashions, so respectable… More respect he would regard his own father with, but he did not meet with her anymore.

She even tried to reach him, but once Takahashi Sesshomaru decided for something, it was final.

Honestly, her attempts were little and sparse. In the last time, he even answered her. It took him a little to identify the telephone ringing — which was weird for someone with his hearing —, but as soon as he took up, so drunk with sleep — also uncommon to him —, he noticed the absence of his powerful claws. The tresses that brushed his hand were not silvery, but of a rich brown.

In a jump, without bothering with his nudity, Sesshomaru walked to the restroom where, to his complete horror, he found a disparaging figure staring back at him.

Instead of the powerful demon, there lay a human before the mirror.

He closed his eyes and breathed deep through his nose.

The supernatural happening of this day would repeat itself at each waxing gibbous moon during the next seven years.

And that was the last time he got closer to a human. He never touched other anymore; they were all fragile, pathetic. Even the demonesses with which he had a relationship looked pale closer to Rin. The sex, even the most savage and primitive, could not compare to a night of slow and sensual lovemaking with Rin.

He clenched his jaw. He was thinking too much about a story he was done with long ago. More than should be appropriate.

In the mirror placed in the lift, he checked his appearance one last time and, satisfied with himself, he turned around in time to see the doors opening.

The _Aronia de Takazawa_ , located in Minato, was booked only for him and his date. One of the most expensive French-Japanese restaurant in Tokyo. Only his father could come up with such idea — one that was bound to leave him with more memories than he bargained for.

From where he was he could listen to the French music filling his hears. _Parole, Parole_ echoed melodically, and he could almost feel in his lips the amazing taste of the _bordeaux_ he shared with Rin in their summer trip to the wonderful Versailles, whether they made love for hours on the sheets of the hotel, or they sated her morbid curiosity she harbored for museums.

Accompanied by the maître, he walked to the table where he would meet the human chosen by his father; zero expectations.

However, before he could step ahead, a woman wearing a silky magenta dress, low in height, nude shoulders and long raven hair, falling to her back in beautiful waves, passed by him towards the exit; head hung low.

He could not see her face, but it would not be necessary.

Her scent was unmistakable. Especially for having something of his mixed up in her. Even after so many years.

 _Rin..._

 **#**

His first thought as soon as he entered his navy-blue _Rolls-Royce Wrait_ was that he was mad. Completely mad for two reasons: that woman could not be Rin and he was following a woman in a taxi that was not Rin.

He could only be hallucinating.

Ueno Rin, the woman he had a fling back in Holland, still lived in Amsterdam. He would know in case she moved to Japan. Not that he minded, of course, but the last time he checked, she still lived comfortably in the European country.

However, how could he explain the scent she gave off? That unique mixture of scents, _his and hers,_ even after so long they saw each other… since they touched each other. Curiosity took over him and before he could realize it, he was in his car, following the taxi that headed to the suburb, opposite direction from his penthouse in Minami-Azabu.

He gritted his teeth as he saw the taxi coming to a halt close to a small, peeling-walled building, in which garden some cherry blossom made a carpet for Rin to step over. Then… In fact, she was back to Japan. It bothered him more than should be appropriate to know she was back and he had no idea of it.

Or, in truth, he was bothered for not knowing before.

He watched her waving to the cabby and walking towards the small entrance of the building. He turned off the engine of his car and followed her in to a reasonable distance. He did not want to be noticed. He could not risk to.

Pocketing his hands, he watched her producing her keys from the small handbag she carried — and he quickly realized it was one of the luxury bags he gifted her with back in Florence, Italy, during their trip to around Europe —, her mobile phone still in hands.

"I... I am here, Kagome." There was a sigh and long pause. A nod. "He is great!" There was another pause, her voice came out forced. "Of course I'm not lying! Why would I?" Then her tone was a bit desperate and angry. "I-I gotta go, Kagome. Catch you later. Love you."

From where he was, Sesshomaru could listen to his sister-in-law cries. She was desperate for Rin to keep talking to her. He also heard everything they said before.

So... Rin, just like him, accepted — was forced — to have a date with someone her friends arranged. And it seemed, this someone was he himself.

Part of him wanted to roar with rage and tell them she belonged to him. Even after so many years. Even after the break up he so wished for. _Needed._ The other half was content, extremely content, for being her partner that night. Even after being rejected.

Did Rin know…?

Did she know it was him?

No.

If she knew, she would never agree with that date.

It made him question himself if his father knew who Rin was and her importance.

No.

Rin was not important. Not anymore.

Without realizing, he took two steps towards her, hands still in his pockets.

"Hello?" she said, looking over her shoulder.

Sesshomaru hid behind a tree watching as she shook her head and resumed her steps towards the building.

However, she was interrupted by a child that ran to her, wrapping small arms around her legs.

"Hiraku!" She laughed, and her laugh, like old times, was still contagious. Not really bothered about dirtying the silky dress or even tearing it apart, she kneeled in front of the child that looked so much like him and brought him to a hug. "Did you miss me?"

"Mom!" the boy said happily, burying his nose in her hair. Rin ran her finger in his silvery tresses, and moved uncomfortably as she noticed how he moved the ears on the top of his head, his senses suddenly on alert mode. "Who is there?"

"You should be sleeping, Hiraku," she said as they removed their shoes on the _genkan_ area and put on their slippers together.

The babysitter, a neighbor that usually took care of Hiraku whenever she needed to leave during the night, looked lost. Her eyes were bloodshot with her incessant crying.

Hiraku moved his nose in total discomfort. He hated the smell of tears.

When she looked up and noticed him, she could not help but run to him and hug him as if her life depended on it. "Hiraku, you little devil!" She tightened her hold, making the six-year-old boy look at his mother with widened eyes — that surely indicated he needed a hand — and making Rin laugh.

"I was so worried, Rin-dono, I was almost calling the police!"

"Hiraku!"

Rin's voice, however, did not make the boy wish to get rid of the babysitter anymore. On the contrary, he moved behind her legs, trying to hide himself from what he knew was to come. "You were downstairs without Sara's consent?"

There was no answer for a short time.

"He was on bed at eight as always, Rin-dono."

"Hiraku."

"I..." He looked down, unable to face his mother. "I used the window," he admitted in a low voice, his golden eyes glued on the floor before the reproving sound that left his mother's lips. "I was bored and Sara-chan was sleeping so I…" He looked up as he said with so much confidence it almost threw her off. "I think I should just greet you and make you company."

"Using the window?"

"I used the tree," he admitted with a frown.

Rin threw her hands up in a signal of utter despair.

Hiraku's frown grew deeper. What was the problem with using the tree? It was perfectly safe, and he was a great climber.

"Two weeks without your XBOX, Hiraku."

He stood silent for a moment, blinking in utter confusion.

"You already took my XBOX."

Rin let out a deep sigh. She was running out of options.

"Then no television and your favorite books. You were reading _The Secret Chamber,_ were you not? You can only go back in the holidays."

"Mom!"

"Don't go _mom_ on me. Or you are going to stay a week without sweets!"

The boy suddenly grew pale. Even if he was used to say he hated sweets, she knew his weak spots. He loved _matcha mochi._ He ate it almost every day and later said he despised day, exactly like his father.

Like father, like son.

"Now, on to the bed and don't you ever jump the window anymore. Two floors, Hiraku, two floors!"

Sara watched everything in silence. Nonetheless, she could not deny she was having fun with their interaction. Hiraku was not a bad boy, he was just easily bored. He was an explorer, just like his mother.

"Thank you, Sara-san." She smiled at the neighbor and opened her purse. "How much do I owe you?"

"Please, Rin-dono. You know I love Hiraku-chan," she said, messing his hair. He took her hand off with a death glare. He simply hated when people saw fit to mess with his hair and his ears.

"I insist." She accompanied her to the door and placed some yens on her hand, thanking the younger woman profusely. "Now…" She turned back to the sulky boy on her toes. "I thought someone was already sleeping soundly."

"There was someone following you," he retorted while they walked to the smaller room in the apartment. "I know there was."

"My love, the entrance was clear. There was no one there." Rin pulled the covers to his chin and kissed his cheeks lovingly.

"Mom, there was someone." He was upset. He simply hated with his mother did not listen to him. "I heard it. It was someone strong. It could hurt you."

Rin lifted an eyebrow.

"And what could you do, my hero?"

"Protect you," he replied as if it was the most obvious question. He would not let anyone harm his mother. Whoever it was.

Her cinnamon eyes became soft before the innocent confession.

"This is my duty, Hiraku," she said, running her fingers through his silvery bangs. The strands were as silky as the hair of her ex-lover. Hiraku was exactly like his father. There was no need for a paternity test. _Never._ The only traces that belonged to Rin were the little nose and the curious glint in his eyes. Maybe the genuine smile — when he felt like smiling, which to be honest, happened in rare occasions. The rest, from the silvery hair and golden eyes, to the sulky temper and haughty stance all belonged to Sesshomaru. With a hint of smile, she noticed her son yawning. "Good night, Hiraku. I love you."

"Hn."

The answer so typical of his father made Rin roll her eyes and turn off the lights with a sigh.

Maybe, if Hiraku was not so alike Sesshomaru, and more like her, she would not have so much headache with him. Headache she knew was far from ending.

 **#**

"Since when?"

"Good morning for you too, Sesshomaru," InuTaisho replied as he turned on the lights on the _engawa_ son was sitting against the _fusuma_ , looking as terrible as ever. He wrinkled his nose uncomfortably at the strong smell of rum. "How much did you drink?"

There was no answer from his eldest son, but he noticed it was lot. It was almost day, which meant he spent the night drinking.

"How was the date? Bad I assume." He extended his hand for Sesshomaru to take, but was completely ignored. Shrugging, he walked on the _engawa_ towards the kitchen, where the slid the shōji doors open and motioned for him to enter.

As an answer, there was a low grunt.

He stared at him and turned on the coffee pot to heat the coffee from last day. It was not the best he could offer, but it was all he had in the moment. With the current condition of his son, it was obvious the drink affected him differently from what it would as an yokai. Coffee would not be that bad to relieve that hangover that would not have hit him in the first place, if he were not in such a frail state.

To InuTaisho, it was a surprise to find his oldest, for the first time, as a human. Needless to say, Sesshomaru made him swear on Izayoi's nonexistent tomb he would never tell that to InuYasha.

That insufferable _half-breed_ would never leave him alone.

He was even tempted to tell, but he decided that maybe it was not the smartest idea, considering that both had no idea what has happening to Sesshomaru.

Now, however, he knew. The sides of his mouth curved up ever so slightly. Perhaps it was time for InuYasha to know that his brother of high _pedigree_ would take, just like him, a human façade once a month.

He shook his head as he gave Sesshomaru his coffee. He did not have time to think about exposing his oldest. They had to talk and if they were to talk about _that,_ he needed Sesshomaru awake.

Honestly, he did not imagine himself having his conversation so soon. He did not expect to have this conversation at all. If things run as smoothly as he expected _and planned,_ Rin and he would talk about it alone. And his son would learn by himself why he became a human each waxing gibbous.

"When?"

"Three months," he replied bringing the cup to his lips. "I expect you to knock on the door next time."

"I did not enter the house."

"Whatever."

There was silence again. Sesshomaru leaned against one of the cabinets and inhaled the smell the coffee gave out. The scent was much weaker without his supernatural senses. The taste, however, was more palatable and addictive.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

InuTaisho was the one to keep silent now. His son's voice, usually deep, was filled with an emotion he could not get closer to comprehend, and that somewhat stunned him.

He never thought Rin was so important.

"It wasn't my secret to tell."

If Sesshomaru were expressive as InuYasha, he would obviously have scoffed. Instead, he remained quiet, as if musing on his own.

"I assume Rin-san did not tell you this."

There was glare directed at him. It was filled with anger, hate maybe.

"He…" he started and took a sip of his coffee. The taste was actually quite bad now that he thought about it. "Hiraku is a smart kid. More than average."

"A hanyō."

"His mother is human... You know how it works."

 _If looks could kill..._

To be very honest, if there was someone surprised it was InuTaisho. Never, in his long life, he expected that his son that was so prone to hate humans — and proud for doing so — would take one for a lover for two years. Would be so careless to the point of get one pregnant. Would father a _half-breed_ as he so called half-blood.

Sesshomaru stayed silent again. He wondered why Rin never reached him. He questioned himself why his father never told him, when he knew about it. This story of _it wasn't my secret to tell_ was bullshit.

Utter, despicable and plain bullshit!

Now he understood why she had his scent even after so many years.

Rin carried his son for months. He snorted. A hanyō. Sesshomaru hated hanyōs. Since always. Since InuYasha's birth. He still hated his very existence, he merely learned to put up with him.

And his son, his firstborn, the heir to all he had, was a hanyō.

 _Ironic._

"Rin tried to reach you," he replied, as if reading his son's thoughts. "But you never answered, nor called back. She gave up."

"Since when she is back to Japan?"

"You two didn't talk?" The answer was obvious, but he felt like asking nonetheless. He sighed. "Six months ago. I met the boy in his school some of these days, three or four months ago. He had gotten in a fight with the older boys…" He laughed warmly at the remembrance. "It seems they insulted Rin-san and he was revolted. He is good at it... Good at fighting."

Before Sesshomaru could get a hold of himself, he asked, "What kind of insult?"

"The boys call him a bunch of things. Half-breed, without father, dumb demon," he said watching the expression, or lack thereof, in Sesshomaru's face. Before the confused glint in his son's brown eyes, he completed, "He has dyscalculia. But he is a brilliant kid. He learned how to write and read when he was three and is well ahead of his class."

Sesshomaru did not utter a word. His father gave him more information than he bargained for. He was not interested in them. He was not interested in the boy.

Or was he?

He spent a good part of his night on Rin's veranda, watching her. Firstly, he was focused on the child, he could barely believe it was his son.

 _A son_ _._

But the similarities were gigantic. And not only in the appearance. There were other inu dayokais out there and even though he knew Rin did not get together with any of them, he could never now. But the way he boy seemed so keen to protect his mother, how he retorted, too clever and cheeky for someone his age.

Even the way he slept was like him.

It was impossible to remain impassible at the words they exchanged and how Rin seemed to take care of his son. Love overflowed her still youthful features. How old as she now? 28... 29? No more than thirty, he believed.

Intrigued, he followed her to her own room, in time to see her slipping out of the silky dress. His mouth watered before the sight of her nude breasts. They were slightly bigger and rounder than he remembered, the nipples bristling with the sudden contact with the icy air in the room; she wore a tiny underwear that got lost in between her firm buttocks.

He was unbelievably hard by the time she turned to him — even if she did not see him — and his golden eyes, so full of desire, landed on the scar on her creamy belly.

It was not big, but it was not that small either.

He knew very little of hanyō pregnancies, but he knew Izayoi almost died on childbirth. His eyes got darker at the possibility of losing Rin in such situation. He was so very careful, he always was. With Rin such care was redoubled. He could not remember a time in which he forgot to take the necessary precautions.

"Sorry… I got distracted with other topics and forgot your question," Inutaisho said, inhaling the coffee. At least the smell was still good, "some children think Rin is a…" he seemed to look for the right words for a moment, "a whore for not being married."

Sesshomaru closed his eyes before the mere idea of anyone calling Rin such names. Children none the less. He would have growled if he could.

"Of course they don't know what they are saying, they're children, but they hear it from their parents and Hiraku hates it when they talk about his mother, so invariably he ends up getting in some fight and breaking one arm or another trying to protect Rin's honor."

He opened his brown eyes and stared at his father. A rather weird, foreign like sensation that he identified as pride took upon his chest. The boy had more of him than he believed at first. Without realized, his lips curved up ever so lightly.

"Dearest, who is there?"

Izayoi's voice echoed in the corridors, forcing both men to turn to the origin of the sound. InuTaisho placed his cup on the sink and walked towards his wife. He approached her and kissed her forehead, his fingers caressing her cheeks in small movements.

"Sesshomaru came to a talk between father and son." His voice was smooth and low. Almost a whisper. "Go back to bed, it's too early. I shall join you soon, my love."

"Yes..." she replied, too sleepy to complain. "Kiss Sesshomaru for me, okay?"

InuTaisho nodded and walked back to the kitchen, but as soon as he entered the room, he found it empty, the _sh_ _ō_ _ji_ doors to the _engawa_ opened.

 **#**

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon.

And even if Rin had put Hiraku on punishment for his bad behavior on the school, she decided to take him to watch _Finding Dory_. To be honest, she was more thrilled than him. And since she had already taken from him everything he liked…

If she were to be honest with herself, she would admit she was rather dragging Hiraku along with her to watch the animation she was ashamed to go alone to watch.

They had great fun in the cinema and Hiraku ate so much popcorn his lips were bursting because of the salt. How he was complaining about the huge row in the lady's restroom. He did not want to go the restroom with his mother. He was a big boy now, he was old enough to go the gentlemen's room by himself. His mother was the one dragging him along.

"Nope! No way, little mister! I'm not letting you do there alone!"

"But, mom!"

"Don't start _mom_ on me!" She would like to know when and where Hiraku learned that ' _but mom',_ lately it seemed to be his preferred sentence. Rin looked at her son and watched how he rubbed his eyes with the back of his still chubby left hand, while she held onto his right. "If you cooperate with mom, we can go home earlier and still take an afternoon nap."

"I am not sleepy! And I am an adult, I don't take afternoon naps."

Chuckling, Rin kneeled in front of the child and cleaned the sides of mouth, smeared with chocolate, with a napkin. Then she did what she knew would have Hiraku glaring at her for the rest of their lives. She squeezed his cheeks and showered him with kisses.

"Mother!"

"Okay, my preferred adult! I promise to leave you alone if you take a selfie with me."

"No."

"Yes."

"Mother, no!"

"Please?" Rin begged, pouting.

"Okay... but you can't ask for more!"

"Only one?" She was still pouting.

"One one," he conceded, too much embarrassed with everyone watching them in the corridors of the mall.

With her Iphone 5S in hands, Rin pulled him by the little shoulders and readied them for the photo. Hiraku still had the same expression of boredom on his childlike — chubby, not that she ever say it to him, he was an adult after all — face, while she smiled big, knowing how hard-headed her son was.

However, before she could take the picture, a haughty figure, standing tall before them made her lower the mobile phone and raise her eyes. The person before her had her blood freezing in her veins.

"Sesshomaru..."

* * *

 **A/N – That's all for today, kids!**

 **I sincerely hope you enjoyed this first chapter. Even with the lack of SessRin interaction. Sorry xD It's necessary for the plot! And I do intend on have a thicker plot for this fic, so fear not, it shall have more chapters, unlike Mating Policies and Mirrored Pleasures that were all short stories.**

 **Well, let's to the further and due explanations. When I started this fic I hadn't read DarkPhoenix168's fic, in which SessRin's child has dyslexia… But I didn't think about changing because when I came up with the idea it was because one of my friend has dyscalculia and I work in a place where several people has dyscalculia. I like to put in my stories things that surrounds my day, so it's easier to write about them and considering that Sesshomaru runs in a Major Bank Corporation, I thought it'd be very fitting. However, I think the least I can do is explain myself.**

 **Also, I'm aware it sounds cliché the idea of them changing places… I mean Rin becoming a demon and Sesshomaru becoming a human once in a month, but I also came up with this idea and I thought it would play a good role in the future plot that doesn't concern only their relationship. So if you have seen it in other fanfics and think it's too cliché, I'm sorry… but bear with me and I promise I'll make it a good reading xD**

 **For those expecting me to update my story Ghost of Me, I'm gonna update in January, when I expect to have finished The Duke's Lover (I'll take the whole December to write and finish TDL), but fear not, for I'll have PS I'm (still not) over you updated once a week, for I have almost ten chapter written for this fic.**

 **It felt weird not to work with InuKimi, but instead we have lots of InuTaisho. I hope I did a good job with him. Please tell me if I'm going in the right direction.**

 **Hiraku means "to open/to support/to expand", but it can also mean "pioneer and to enlighten", it was with the last two meanings that I came up with the name for my character.**

 **Now would you mind reviewing it for me? I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Take care,**

 **Velvetsins.**


	2. II - Following the damned White Rabbit

**Hi xD**

 **As promised, here I am to update this fic.**

 **Firstly, I'm amazed at the response this story got in the first chapter. I'm beyond happy so many of you added this story to your follows and favorites and left so many reviews as well** (tefuya61, azraelknight, Tay, WildHeart44, Guest, Emerald lynx, Guest, Guest, Guest, Mirja, Netko, Guest, AKABlossom, Karrat, Guest, yourfan, inu demon, lady of the west, Guest, therp, Sailorstar1723) **thank you for your reviews! I loved each one of them!**

 **Tay: I will finish Mating Policies, worry not!**

 **I just couldn't come up with it this weekend because I was a bit sick and couldn't find the right words within me to update the final chapter. So I decided to edit and update PS I'm (still not) over you.**

 **English is not my first language, so you know…**

 **Disclaimer: Takahashi owns InuYasha, I own this plot and the OCs. All brands and places here mentioned are real and I don't own them.**

 **Warning: OCCness and a small smutty scene.**

 **Happy reading!**

* * *

 _PS I'm (still not) over you_

 **II – Following the** _ **damned**_ **White Rabbit**

* * *

His curiosity was pathetic.

Sesshomaru felt pathetic.

He had just left an important financial meeting and was currently stuck in the traffic jam when he spotted Rin on the crosswalk, holding the child's hand.

She smiled — the child stared at everything curiously, even if he looked happy to some extent — and her smile was absolutely contagious. He forgot how to breathe for a moment.

Controlled by his damned curiosity, he followed her closely behind. He watched as she entered the mall and acting totally out of character, he parked in first vacant place he found, not really worried about the kind of parking spot; his mind totally focused on Rin. Even if he could find her later, the amount of smells in just one place would drive his senses to madness for a long while. It would be more than enough for him to miss her.

While he followed her, he observed as the boy stared at his surroundings suspiciously several times. Rin was rather calm and admonished the child not only once, but several times.

Part of him was irritated she was trying to shut down his instincts so vehemently, but the other half was relieved to know Rin was still the same foolish woman he met so long ago.

And it irritated him to no end.

He forgot how many times he found her in danger because she was careless and naïve. Just because she was in a mall, it did not mean she was safe. He thought she learned the lesson years before.

Bound to the task of following her — lunch in his brother's house completely forgotten — he bought, _more like bribed,_ the tickets — already sold out — to the kid's movie.

The employee was astonished to see him — the handsome, important and _to die for_ businessman Takahashi Sesshomaru at the local movie theater? It would be the news of the century! But hemanaged to silence her with a selfie — and there were few things he could say he hated more than a selfie — and a fair amount of money.

He spent the last hour observing both of them watching the movie, eating popcorn occasionally laughing and crying — Rin cried.

The acid smell of tears reached him fast and before the commotion he expected at the end of the movie, he had to leave. He wondered how the kid — he refused the call the hanyo his son — could put up with that strong and sickening smell.

Sesshomaru closed his golden eyes.

It did not matter.

It _should not_ matter.

He had to leave. He needed to.

Walking towards the exit, he stopped on his tracks when he spotted a toy store. It was showcased several _funko pop!_ of some of the current and most famous franchises.

 _He loves Harry Potter._

Next to the collectible toys, there was a box of Legos reassembling the Hogwarts Castle. One thousand pieces.

 _He is a smart kid. More than average._

Placing one thousand pieces together would be a piece of cake for a boy as smart as him.

He narrowed his eyes at his thoughts. He was not interested. As far as he knew, the kid could very well be of another's. Who knew what kind of men — demon — Rin opened her legs to while he was gone?

The demon in him rebelled. He was _not_ to treat Rin like a common whore.

His lips were pursed into a straight line. Just because that kid was possibly his, it did not mean he was ready to accept it.

 _A hanyo._

Sesshomaru _would not_ taint his perfect image or throw away his pride for a… _half-breed._

He turned on his heels — he lost too much time, _precious time,_ playing detective — when he spotted Rin kneeled in front of the kid; Iphone in hands.

Before he could control himself, his feet guided him to her.

 **#**

Her cinnamon eyes were as big as saucers as they landed the mighty figure in front of her. Her breath stopped on her lungs and her heart raced.

"Sesshomaru."

 _No._

She was going crazy.

Seeing things.

Sesshomaru hated malls, not to mention malls like that… As poor as that. Her wealthy ex-lover — he was never more than that, she had to accept the truth, as much as pain it brought her poor heart —, has always been averse to anything that did not meet his standards. And that mall certainly could not meet his exquisite requirements.

She rolled her eyes annoyed with herself. Annoyed with her daydreams. Of course, she was daydreaming. Sesshomaru was not and _would never_ be there.

"Rin," he replied in his deep voice.

Her breath stopped on her throat.

 _How?_

 _When?_

 _Why?_

Time seemed to stop for both them, while they stared at each other rather intensely. Rin opened her mouth more than once, but sounds seemed to escape her. She was unable to speak whatever she had to speak. She closed her lips into a straight line, aware she looked like a dead fish.

So… she was not crazy. Sesshomaru was really there, in that excuse of a mall.

She gulped.

"Who are you?" Hiraku's shrilling voice brought them out of their momentary trance.

Rin looked back at the child still in her arms and tightened her hold onto him. All she ever wanted in that moment was to run away from there and disappear from the world. Sesshomaru's usually cold stare, so icy and unreadable, over her son bothered her to no end. But she knew better. The demon could catch her in a blink of an eye.

It would be a foolish move to escape from a dog surrounding its prey.

"An acquaintance," he replied for her, outstretching his hand to help her up.

Rin even thought about refusing his help, but she knew it would be unpolite and rude. Not to mention her son watching them like a hawk. His stare was so alike Sesshomaru's she could not help but gulp.

She placed her hand over his and closed her eyes as his long and warm fingers closed around hers and pulled her slightly to her feet. She expected him to let her go shortly after, however, she was surprised when his touch lingered.

It made a shiver ran up her spine.

Seven years away from Sesshomaru — away from his expert touch — did not seem enough for her body to forget the everlasting effects his intoxicating proximity seemed to exert over her.

"Thank you," she whispered, biting her bottom lip. "It's been a while…"

"Seven years."

There was a lump in her throat. She dreaded this day more than everything, but she never thought it would be this difficult.

Reality could always be worse than imagination.

"Seven years…" She nodded in agreement.

He knew it. _He knew it._ His tone was accusatory, as if he judged her for her silence. Judged her vehemently.

"I don't like you," Hiraku confessed, his golden eyes seriously focused on the man before them. He did not like the way he stared at his mother — in such a possessive fashion — and neither how she looked tense in his presence.

"Hiraku!" Rin looked back at ther son, completely mortified. "What did I say about not telling what you think whenever you feel like it?"

"I was just being sincere." The ears on the top of his head flattened slightly.

Honestly, he expected some credit for intervening. His mother seemed rather nervous, acting unlike herself, like a fish out of water.

"Apologize."

Hiraku looked at her in utter astonishment. He did not want to apologize. _Not now, not ever._ He did not like that man. Besides, he thought he should always say the truth, no matter the occasion. At least, that was what his teacher taught him, what Sara always told him; what his own mother was always taking about.

Rin was shaking — dead nervous — and if she was like that, it was because she did not like that man. He was absolutely not a friend. Or whatever an acquaintance meant.

"Hiraku, apologize now."

"It is not necessary."

"I am sorry."

They spoke at the same time. Both, father and son, stared at each other and Rin could not help but notice how Hiraku, even looking a bit afraid, held his father's intense stare.

She knew what Sesshomaru was doing and she did not like it one bit. He could very well be an alpha, but she was letting her son submit to him.

"Well…" She cleared her throat. "It was a pleasure meeting you, but we have to go."

Sesshomaru nodded, unable to understand why he felt the need to keep her exactly where she was. He clenched his hands into fists, before he could outstretch them and hold her back.

In silence, he watched as both of them disappeared from his line of sight.

#

"Is he mine?"

"Goddammit, Sesshomaru!" Rin looked back at him, the knife she was using the cut the fish escaped her hand. She missed her own flesh for very little; she could end up with a deep cut. Trembling, she collected the knife from the floor and put it inside the sink.

The demon looked at her through narrowed eyes.

It was a stupid question, he knew. But he could not help himself. He had to hear the confirmation coming from Rin's lips.

He needed to.

"Have you ever heard about knocking on the door?"

The hateful _Hn_ was the only answer he gave her as he walked towards her, his steps carefully measured. He was the perfect image of a real hunter.

"Get out of my house!" she demanded in a voice that seemed more like a whisper, a request.

"I asked you a question."

"And I asked you to leave."

There was silence for a moment. Neither seemed keen to give up on their requests. And, if it depended on him, Rin would be the first to give up. An alpha like him would never submit to anyone — not even her.

"Rin."

"Sesshomaru."

Both said at the same time. Rin was painfully aware he could hear her heart beating strongly against her ribcages. Gods above, she herself could hear it. She was also aware he could feel, _smell,_ her lie.

And even knowing it, she lied.

"No."

Her voice came out surprisingly firm for someone who was on the verge of a heart-attack seconds before.

"Rin." His whispered tone made a shiver run up her entire body, from toe to head. The proximity was driving her out of her mind… Not only had her shocked, but terrified as well. When did Sesshomaru manage to put her between his body and the kitchen wall? "Look at me."

She did not obey him. She would not.

In that position, she was not only painfully reminded of their past — how he enjoyed hunting her and end up giving her the most pleasurable of moments —, but how he smelled of alcohol.

Rin knew a demon such as himself — a daiyokai — could not get drunk that easily, but to know he had been drinking over such a matter stunned her.

 _Demons are incapable of love._

She shook her head. He drunk because he hated the mere possibility of fathering a hanyo. He drunk because he loathed his very child. He drunk because he could never and _would_ _never_ love her — or any being that could come out of their union.

"He is mine," she replied, still looking aside — anywhere but him. She did not dare to face him for what she was to say next, "You hate hanyos. Hiraku is _my_ son."

As if burned by her words, he let go of her and walked away. From the distance, she could straighten herself and calm down her maddened heart. She could also see how tall he looked — and not at all intimidating as he was, back-turned to her.

"Seven years, Rin."

His deep voice was loaded with some kind of accusation and — she frowned — remorse? Was that some kind of feeling the great and unfeeling Sesshomaru would ever display?

He looked back at her over his shoulder and her big, cinnamon eyes locked with his golden ones. For a moment, Rin believed she saw a soft touch on his natural predatory stance.

And then, before she could ever see it coming, he had her in the same position — between his broad body and the wall —, and full of terror; his deep voice sounded on her ear, making her very hair stand up.

"I hate humans and hanyos alike."

 **#**

 _She rolled to the other side bed, her womanly curves bare to his appreciation. He traced her spine with a clawed finger and watched as she shivered._

 _He should let her sleep. He really should let her sleep._

 _However, it was easier saying than done. Nights in Versailles — the beautiful French city — seemed to make him hungrier for her._

She was delectable.

 _Shaking such thoughts away, he rose to his feet and put on some lightweight trousers, heading to the double French doors that lead to the veranda in their room._

 _The moon was high up in the sky and the scratches she placed on his back were only beginning to heal as he observed the natural satellite in the sky._

 _His demon purred delighted, but he was not satisfied yet. He wanted more of her. More of her delectable moans in the throes of passion, more of her soft curves molded against his and her nails deep buried in his flesh as he brought her to the edge._

 _And how Sesshomaru loved to bring her to the sweetest ecstasy._

She was delightful.

 _Since he first laid eyes on her, he knew he could not let her go without as much as a kiss. And since he first kissed her, he knew he had to have her. And when he had had… He knew he would not want another._

 _He was not a two timing, but he was neither prone to stay so long with a woman — a human woman at that. And when he last expected, there he was, in a firm relationship with Rin for two years._

 _Two years were nothing for a demon like him, but he always got easily tired of the demonesses he used to hang out with. It did not happen with Rin, the more he knew her, the more the wanted her._

 _Everything of hers enchanted him. And Sesshomaru could say very few pleased him in the last. And Rin… Rin managed to be everything he could ever expect of lover —_ of a mate _._

 _She made him feel what he never thought possible for demons to feel — he still thought his father was faking it with Izayoi, for the love sickened him to no end. She made him have funny thoughts — as the one he had while they crossed the streets and were greeted by a child playing hide and seek with her father._

 _And she made him do the unthinkable._

 _That very night, as he held her close in the throes of passion, he confessed himself. The three forbidden words left his lips._

…I love you, Rin…

 _She confessed herself a few times already, but whenever she said the words, he would merely kiss her. Or do any other thing to distract her from the need to hear such words. He knew it was bellow her — she deserved so much more, but it was not something he could give her, yet._

 _That night he gave her that — and if depended on his demon, he would give her much more. The beast wanted her marked — marked and pupped — and if he was not such a great master at controlling herself, the first may have happened._

 _He closed his golden eyes._

 _No._

 _He could not let himself fall that low._

 _Not for a woman._

 _Not for a_ ningen _woman._

 _It did not matter his feelings — or whatever that traitorous thing that had his heart beating faster whenever she smiled — wanted otherwise — his beast wanted otherwise. He had to let her go._

 _And he better do it soon. Before he fell to his inner demon's tricks. Before he marked her. Or worse: created a new life with her._

 _Yes._

 _He would end it all. He would end their story once and for all. Before he forgot his very existence as a demon and his very promise — not to fall for a human woman. No matter how they looked, smelled and felt, they were no better than the woman who destroyed his parents' relationship._

 _Furthermore: they were weak. And he would not let himself be caught off guard because of a weaker being by his enemies. And he had plenty._

" _Sesshomaru?" she asked, her voice still sleepy. He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. They golden and unfeeling orbs were back to the usual warmth he only displayed for her._

 _He turned to her._

 _Yes. He would end things with her. But not now. Not in the beautiful Versailles._

 _In that very spring night, all he wanted was to be in her arms again. And so he would._

 _Getting rid of his trousers, he walked back to her and joined her in the bed. Before she could say anything, he was invading her mouth in a lascivious kiss that screamed of all his feelings — the very same he wanted to get rid of._

 _She matched him in his fiery passion, her legs opening to let him settle between them; her nude and warm skin touching his chilly one._

 _Both shivered._

 _He ran a clawed hand over her leg and wrapped it around his already nude lower half. It took him very little touches to have her ready for him. He slithered one hand from her neck — where he tilted her head for better access to his hungry mouth — and down her chest, not stopping to tease her as she would have wished. Instead, he made a pause over her flat stomach. His fingers tracing curious patterns over her womb._

 _How would she look round with his child?_

 _He knew any child he may have with her would be none other than a half-breed. But for a moment, he did not care. For they would come from her. And everything she did — she owned, she made and eventually mothered — was perfect._

" _Maru?" she asked as he seemed too much distracted with her belly. It was almost ticking. She kissed his jaw and dragged her attention back to her._

 _He shook such thoughts away. He did not have time to be a father now. And anyways, he would leave her soon. That role would be fulfilled later by a more fitting demoness — one he was sure he would never love._

" _Maru?" Her voice was filled with concern. He looked at her through half-lidded eyes. "Are you alright?"_

 _He used the very same fingers that traced her womb moments before to pinch her sensible nipples. He lowered her to his aching shafting, sliding into her with practiced easy — something he would never have with any demoness._

 _She moaned._

 _Too much loud for the place they were currently in — and just in the perfect tone to his liking._

" _Shhh…" he whispered against her ear, placing a small kiss on her earlobe. "Allow this Sesshomaru to pleasure you,_ my Rin _."_

 **#**

He should know.

He should have known that by then she was already pregnant with his child. There was no other reason — not good enough — to explain why he seemed unable to keep his hands off her.

Perhaps he knew.

And exactly because of that he ran away.

 _No._

He did not run away. He departed. Relationships started and ended. That was the natural course of life. Why was he so bothered by it? Anyways, if he did know she was pregnant by them, he would mostly like have forced her to have an abortion.

He would never father a half-breed. He would die before that.

However, the answer — the real one — was crystal clear.

As fool as he was, he would probably have stayed by her side and — to his utter shame — mated and marked her.

Tsk. Pathetic.

He was pathetic.

Bringing the glass of whisky to his lips, he savored its taste. For the first time he hated not being in his human form. All he wanted now was to drink till he forgot his very existence. In possession of his natural senses, he would not get drunk not even if he wanted it.

"What did you do to Rin, Sesshomaru?" InuTaisho asked as soon as he entered his son's office.

The demon stood still for a moment, the glass of whisky inches from his mouth.

"Kagome talked to her this afternoon," InuTaisho could hear it clearly as a low growl emerged from his son's chest.

So… His daughter-in-law was right. Sesshomaru met Rin earlier and if he could trust Kagome — he believed he could — Rin was terrified of him.

"What did you do?" he asked, taking a seat in front of his son. He reeked of alcohol. InuTaisho wondered if he drunk before visiting her or if he fell to that low after their meeting.

"My personal life is no business of yours."

"Son."

 _Father_ was implicit in his intense and icy stare.

"What did Kagome tell you?" he asked, pouring more whisky to himself. The ice in the bottom of the glass had already melted, but Sesshomaru was done with that father-son talk. Besides, that was his last dose and he would head back home. "Whatever she told you is true."

Still sitting in front of his oldest, InuTaisho poured himself some whisky — he drunk nothing before, and he knew that only alcohol could help him with someone so hardheaded as Sesshomaru — and crossed his legs in a more comfortable position.

"Then I hope is wrong," he let out, attracting the demon's attention. "I hope you did not put Rin and _my grandson_ in danger."

The growl that was born in Sesshomaru's chest was heard in clearly by the two of them. The eyes staring back at him were not purely golden anymore, crimson dominated them.

"I _would never_ put Rin's life in danger."

The sides of InuTaisho's mouth lifted ever so slightly in a shadow of a smile. Before his son could see it, however, he brought the glass to his lips and drank his fill.

"Good." He put the glass on the desk and walked to his son, putting a hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner. "Rin didn't say anything, but from the tone of her voice, Kagome thought she had met you."

"Hn."

Sesshomaru turned his chair to him. Even staring at his father in such position, he did not show fear, nor submission.

"You don't deny it." InuTaisho arched an eyebrow.

"Hn."

"Hn... Your vocabulary was never great, Sesshomaru, but you surprise me sometimes."

"Will that be all?" He rose to his feet and walked to the door. However, before he could leave, he was stopped by the hand on his shoulder once again.

"I know the idea of being a father terrifies you, but you'll do it just fine."

If he was lesser man, the demon would have scoffed. Perhaps rolled his eyes. Perhaps both.

"That hanyo is not my son. I have never wanted him."

InuTaisho did look taken aback for a moment, but soon a small smile took over his lips. He watched his son leave, following him in measured steps. When Sesshomaru entered his _Rolls Royce Wraith_ , he let out a tiny information — one he could not let his son go by without.

"Rin intends on moving back to Holland as soon as possible."

 **#**

"Satisfied, _smartass?_ " InuYasha asked as soon as they found themselves alone in the lift.

Together, they went to a meeting outside — something that rarely ever occurred; if someone wanted to see the great Takahashi Sesshomaru, they should go to him, not the other way around, _never_ the other way around —, to be precise, in the Onigumo House.

Suzuki Onigumo wanted them — it is, the Takahashi Group — to sponsor him and his next exhibition. If possible to allow him to exhibit their relics, to which Sesshomaru quickly disagreed. He would not exhibit to mere mortals — and he stressed Onigumo was merely a disposable human — his Tenseiga — even if he was still to discover the use of a healing sword — Bakusaiga and Tōkijin were not to be beheld by curious eyes. InuYasha agreed quickly on the matter. He would not allow his Tessaiga to be exposed as well.

He expected to attract thousands to his Museum with the exhibition that would consist of not only relics of the _Sengoku Jidai_ , a period in history only demons like Sesshomaru and InuYasha lived through, but paintings and day-to-day items from that time as well.

The deal included the Takahashi Family going to the opening ball as well. Sesshomaru agreed to all of that, however, he took a lot from the museum owner. InuYasha was surprised he happily agreed to something that would take away from him his very profits in that damned exhibition only to have the seal of the Takahashi Enterprises as a sponsor and their presence in a meaningless ball.

It all seemed too weird to him.

He wondered if Sesshomaru felt the same.

"Thoroughly, _half-breed_ ," he replied, aware his half-brother would most like growl back at him for the use of his nickname or would try to fight him. To be very honest, it had been a while since they last fought and Sesshomaru needed some sort of stress-reliever badly.

Sadly, InuYasha did neither. He was too lost in his own thoughts to care about his older brother for the moment.

The doors opened soundly when they reached the ground floor. Sesshomaru lifted his eyes when his ears captured a gasp nearby. There Rin stood, dressed formally in a gray dress that matched his own suit, a pair of black stilettos adorning her feet; her long raven hair held high up in a ponytail.

He had to control himself before he could reach out and place a strand of shiny hair behind her ear.

"Hey asshole, move away, I want to leave the lift," InuYasha said behind his back, not really aware of whom his brother was facing — more like what or whom was preventing his brother from further walking.

"Hello, InuYasha," Rin's soft voice dragged his attention. She lifted her left hand and waved at him.

"Feh…" He scratched his head, now he totally understood what detained his asshole half-brother. "Hello, Rin..." He waved back at her, feeling the atmosphere quickly changing to extremely awkward. "How is my buddy?"

Sesshomaru looked at him out of the corner of his golden eyes — now extremely narrowed — and back at Rin, waiting for her answer.

"Good," she replied a bit shy. "Are you leaving?" she asked, trying to make small talk. She was terribly at it though. With a sigh, she placed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"You can go alone, InuYasha," Sesshomaru said while still staring at Rin in the eye. He was utterly disappointed she straightened her hair alone.

The half-demon rolled his eyes at his half-brother.

"Feh, _pedigree_ … I'm going…" InuYasha replied, and when he walked past by Rin, he turned on his heels. "Bring the boy to play with me one of these days. Stop punishing him so much, he is just a boy." At Rin's arched eyebrow and his half-brother curious stare, he scratched his head. "Eerr… Sorry… Please, don't tell Kagome, she will sit me into eternity if you do."

Rin would have laughed if she was not so tense around Sesshomaru. However, all she could must was a small smile and a wave of hand.

"See you around, InuYasha."

Before she could turn back to the Sesshomaru, he was holding her by the elbow. She lifted her widened cinnamon eyes to him, her hand placed over his as she decided whether she should free herself from his grasp or not.

"I shall have a word."

 **#**

"Are you following me?" she whispered back at him, as he closed the door behind himself.

The demon was not about to lie, but he was not about to tell her the truth either. He was not a man used to do as others commanded. Even if a part of him did not rebel against Rin's sultriest commands. In fact, he was happy to be dominated by her.

They were inside a small meeting room, with no windows and only a door he was currently leaning on.

 _Perfect._

The sides of his mouth lifted ever so slightly. He glanced at his _Rotonde de Cartier Astrotourbillon Carbon Crystal_ watch and realized he still had one hour before his next meeting.

More than enough to talk to her.

Even if he had no idea what he wanted to talk about.

"…Maru?"

As he heard the use of his pet name, he looked at her face — not as flustered as it used to be whenever she called him _that_ in their passionate interludes — and walked slowly to her.

"Don't you dare!" she warned in a higher tone, but not high enough to attract foreign attention.

He stopped on his tracks, but did not give her the satisfaction of seeing he stopped because she asked. Instead, he tilted his head ever so slightly, as the Onigumo's voice reached his supernatural hearing.

"This Sesshomaru did not stalk you, if that's what you are concerned about."

A sigh of relief left her mouth. Not even a second later, her bottom lip was trapped between her small teeth. His eyes flashed at her action. Without his consent, his feet moved towards her and the prowler in him rejoiced when she walked back.

All he wanted now was to kiss her. Real badly.

The need was so overpowering he could barely control himself. And he was an expert when it came to control his urges.

"How long do you work for him?"

"Excuse me?"

"Suzuki Onigumo," he completed, his head still slightly tilted as he heard said man talking to others. "How long do you work for him?"

"Does it matter?" she asked back, not really sure when and how the conversation took such turn. She crossed her arms at the height of her chest and leaned against the wall — on the other side of the room, of course.

It took him a while to reply, he seemed too much focused on outside noises, something he rarely did, except when he thought she was in a dangerous environment. It made a shiver run up her spine.

She was certainly not in danger in the Onigumo House, right?

"Sesshomaru?"

"It does," he replied, walking to her in measures steps that set her heart on edge.

She looked at the door, measuring her changes of escaping, but that brief moment — the briefest even — was enough for him to approach and hold her chin in place.

From his lips — the same she expected to close over hers in a sultry kiss, _dreamed even_ — poured words she could never expect.

"How would you like to work for the Takahashi Cultural?"

Her eyes widened more than she ever thought possible. Her breath stopped on her throat. Sesshomaru was making a business proposal to her? Did she hear it right? Was the CEO of the Takahashi Enterprises — one of the most famous in Asia, prizewinning businessman of the year for countless times — really proposing to her to work for him?

"Name your prize and the position of curator shall be yours."

Rin bit her bottom lip. The proposal was surely something. Honestly, it was the understatement of the year. His proposal was to die for. She could only imagine how much she would make a week, a month — an entire year. Surely, much more than she earned in her current position at the Onigumo House.

"I'd rather die than to work for someone such as yourself."

 **#**

Rin walked down the street in a quick pace. She was late to fetch Hiraku in the school. It was not usual for her to be late, but she spent the last few days extremely busy organizing everything they needed to their journey back.

Sesshomaru's proposal still clung to the back of her head. Somehow, she was mad at herself for having declined such a good business proposition; she would not get anything better be here in Japan or back in Holland. Part of her was afraid of going back to the European country. There was a rise of xenophobia in the whole Europe and she could not say she was not afraid of it somehow hurting her child.

On top of that, there was Onigumo. Her boss seemed unsure about letting her leave, he said so himself she was an excellent employee who could offer so much for his company and it was such a pity to watch her leaving behind everything she fought so hard to accomplish in the last six months and go back to Holland. To Rin, however, the way he stared at her suggested something different. Perhaps, it would be best to leave once and for all. Onigumo's morbid and sudden interest in her and Hiraku gave her the creeps.

Not to mention how Sesshomaru seemed so weird that afternoon. It seemed as if his proposition came out of nowhere, as if he just said that because he wanted her away from Onigumo.

She shivered.

Either way, whenever she thought about it, the surer she grew about leaving Japan as soon as possible.

Kagome supported her very decisions — whatever they were —, Sango and Kikyo believed she was acting like a coward, running from her responsibilities.

Rin agreed with them to some extent.

She knew it was wrong to take from Hiraku the chance of finally having his father in his life. But she was terrified. Sesshomaru could hurt him. Only Kami could know what he would do in order to erase Hiraku from his life — erase a half-breed so he would not taint his perfect image.

Nevertheless, her rational side knew she was exaggerating. Sesshomaru was cruel, true, but she doubted she would hurt her or Hiraku. He was the one to always step up and protect her… To get himself hurt if needed… Yet, seven years had gone by. The man she knew back in Holland while was undergoing his MBA course and she was in college, could be very well dead and buried for all she knew.

If the newspapers were right — and she believed them to be, at least to some extent — this Sesshomaru, now CEO of the Takahashi Enterprises was a man — demon — of vices, a man who did not measures his efforts to get what he wanted, including harming his fiancée, accusing her in many ways.

A man who would go to any lengths to see his image untainted. The image of a powerful and proud yokai.

Someone like him would not accept a son like Hiraku, a hybrid. _A half-breed._

The man, _lover,_ she met in Holland… The man that was so gentle and caring with her… The man whom she fell in love with — she was still in love with him — was not alive anymore.

If he ever existed in the first place.

She knew her life would not be easy in Holland, not with the economic crisis still very much alive in Europe. But Rin was confident she would at least get a job. Museums always needed polyglot employees and thanks to Sesshomaru, she spoke six different languages: Dutch, German, English, Spanish, French and Italian, besides Japanese, of course.

Sighing, she stopped right at the school gates and looked at her wristwatch. Five minutes late. Hiraku was accompanied by his home teacher, the frown marring his features disappeared when he saw her.

"Mom!"

"Hiraku!" She lifted him easily, showering her son's face with kisses. Unlike most of times, the boy only giggled at the attention his mother was giving him.

Rin looked at him and, for a brief moment, all her fears and insecurities disappeared. Her hold tightened around him.

"How was your day?" she asked, lowering him to his feet. She kneeled in front of him and straightened his school uniform.

"I did not fight today," he commented, placing his hand between hers. Even though he did not smile, he was quite happy when she tightened her hold on him.

"Looks like someone wants to be acclaimed!" She pinched his cheeks with a joyous smile.

Hiraku put his mother's hand aside without care and frowned. He hated when someone squeezed his cheeks and fluffy ears. At school, many children seemed to love his ears, which led him to many fights as well. He stopped, however, in the face of a sudden doubt.

"Acclaimed?"

Rin laughed at his question and pinched his chubby cheeks once again.

"Cheered on, Hiraku." Sighing happily, she rose to her feet. "It's your duty to stay calm and avoid unnecessary fighting."

The boy frowned.

"But you said I should not go down without a fight."

Rin laughed heartily. "That was figure of speech, my baby boy." She took his backpack and put it on his shoulder. "I mean it as in you should not be humiliated, but I did not say anything about spanking others. Do you see me doing that to people out there?"

Hiraku's frown deepened. He did not understand what she meant.

"Why not?"

"Just because..." After watching his still confused face, she completed, "because it's not right. What if people strike back?"

"I protect you."

"Okay, okay, my superman."

For a few minutes, both walked home in silence. The neighborhood in which Hiraku attended to school was rather peaceful. It was a pity they were on the verge of leaving.

 _It's for the best, Rin,_ she reminded herself.

"What do you think about going back to Holland?" she asked when they neared the corner of the street where they lived.

Hiraku's golden eyes shone.

"For real?"

"For real."

"Yeah!"

 **#**

Another pair of golden eyes shone at such information. This time, it was due to anger or any other feeling the demon could not understand. He waited outside her house till nightfall, lost in thoughts.

A fierce battle ensued within him.

His rational side — the man, _not the beast_ in him — knew it to be wise to let her go. Hiraku had not been his son for six years and they would not form a bond now.

He knew that the best he could do right now was to let Rin go. He spent seven years without her company, away from the massive emotions she evoked in him. It was stupid of him to believe he would have self-control now.

And he knew his image would be thoroughly shaken if people knew that he — the powerful and prideful inu daiyokai that hated humankind — had a son with a human — fell in love with one.

Ever since the modern world discovered the existence of demons — more like acknowledged it, because deep down everyone knew it —, coexistence was something a bit complicated.

Slowly, human-yokai relationship became more accepted, but hanyo were still taboo. Rin's very existence — the boy existence — would not merely taint his perfect image, but attract his worst enemies as well.

But such knowledge was of no use. He wanted her. Rin was his. To know that they had a son together did nothing to make him act prudently and rationally.

 _On the contrary._

After he found out about the boyfriend she had back in Holland and to know that she would probably be back to his arms as soon as she landed on Amsterdam increased his need to have her. To mark her.

Kohaku.

Sango's little brother, one of Rin's friend — of his sister-in-law's best friends. A history teacher specialized in yokais. Otherwise known as a demon hunter.

Punching the wheel with all his might — and he was glad cars were now designed to humans and demons alike —, he left his _Rolls Royce Wraith_ and headed to Rin's flat.

 **#**

She had just put Hiraku to sleep — which took her a while, the boy was all excited about the possibility of heading back to Holland — when she heard the doorbell ringing.

Afraid her son might wake up, she opened the door without delay, forgetting to look through the magic eye at her guest.

Her breath stopped on her throat when she saw Sesshomaru; her first reaction was to close the door again. However, he prevented her from doing it, placing his foot in the way.

"Do you really believe I will harm the child?"

Rin's heart stopped for a moment, but returned to the mad beating of before. She thought it was on the verge of leaving her mouth, so strongly and quickly it beat.

 _No._

She knew he would not. Gods above! That was Sesshomaru she was speaking of, the man who would kill for her, who _would die_ for her.

In the past, at least.

Still afraid, she said, "Go away."

"Open the door."

"Promise me you won't hurt him," she said, already walking away from the entrance.

"Hn." Sesshomaru entered and closed the door behind himself. He watched, not without some sort of amusement, as she backed off, till her back was against the kitchen wall.

He pondered if he should walk to her or not. Even though he enjoyed playing hunter, he knew better.

"Promise."

"This Sesshomaru shall not stick to stupid promises."

For a few seconds that looked like an eternity, they stayed in silence. Despite of the fear, not of him, but of what she _felt_ for him, Rin stared at him in the eye.

"Don't worry." Her voice trailed off. It did not help she was now stuck between Sesshomaru's powerful body and the wall. Why and _when_ did he move? "We're leaving soon."

The growl coming from the demon's broad chest made her widen her cinnamon eyes.

"I forbid you."

At his possessive tone, Rin felt her face warming up. She could swear her cheeks were thoroughly red.

When they were still dating — or whatever they were back in Holland — Sesshomaru has always been possessive and bossy. Several times he demanded from her certain behaviors she was not keen to accept. The only place in which she accepted to be submissive, _sometimes,_ was the bed. Otherwise, she would always fight him. In time, Sesshomaru understood that if he wanted any relationship with her, he should learn to respect her decisions and mainly her space.

"You won't tell me what to do anymore."

"Rin." His voice had a hint of warning.

She was not intimidated. She lifted her chin and stared back at him intently. And even if butterflies danced in her stomach, she decided she would not back down.

Sesshomaru had no more power over her.

He better not held his breath if he was really thinking she would obey him like she did in the past.

"Let go of me."

He did what she asked and stepped away. When a sigh of relief left her mouth, his lips crashed against hers; their bodies once again pressed together against the wall.

It is without saying how proud he felt when she opened her lips to him, before he could even ask for it.

She moaned.

Rin had dreamed of his touch for years and even if she had dated others after him, no man was ever capable of making her feel the way Sesshomaru did.

It was inexplicable.

Indescribable.

Simply perfect.

"…Maru…"

He broke apart, letting her get the much-needed breath. But before she could think of anything — he could think of anything else, for kissing her always left him in a haze of lust —, he took her lips into another overpowering kiss, tilting her head to his better access. His long fingers moved on her waist, pulling her closer.

She tasted like… To kiss Rin was something he could not find enough — or good enough — words to describe. It was always something magical.

 _Simply perfect._

To have her in his arms was to be in paradise — and a demon like him would never experience what it was to be in heaven. However, to hold her close, to kiss her — to make love to her — was better than that.

It was heaven in itself.

When he finally broke apart — and he hated himself for having to move away, all he wanted right now was to kiss her till she forgot her own name —, he was short of breath as well.

"Rin..."

And before she could say something — anything that would break the moment — or even move away, he buried his nose on her neck, inhaling the sweet scent she gave off; his long claws finding its way to her raven locks.

"Marry me."

* * *

 **A/N – And that's all for today, kids!**

 **What will Rin say? xD Will she say yes? Place your bets on yes x no. I'm thrilled to know what you think.**

 **Well, that's a bit shorter than last chapter, but I hope you have enjoyed it as much. Next chapter shall be bigger, around 8k, as always.**

 **As I said, today I expected to have Mating Policies update, however, I am a bit sick and I couldn't focus on writing the last chapter — you know endings are not really easy, even if it's from a short fic like Mating Policies. I also thought I'd have TDL updated, but guess what…**

 **Now… what are your bets on Onigumo's mystery? Is Sesshomaru right about him? What will he do to keep Rin away from him?**

 **Just for curiosity… A Rotonde de Cartier Astrotourbillon Carbon Crystal costs 200,000 USD. Pretty expensive for a watch, don't you think? But Sesshomaru can certainly pay for such a small treat xDDDD**

 **Well, I don't know if I can update next week. Probably not. I've a wedding to attend and you know, it's Sunday morning, so I have a Saturday totally scheduled for taking care of myself, so you know… But who knows? Besides, I have some homework left…**

 **Now, do tell me what you think, will you?**

 **Take care,**

 **Velvetsins**


	3. III – The proud Prince Yokai

**Hi xD**

 **Didn't think I'd be able to update today, but guess what? I came back from the wedding — it was a marvelous wedding, have been to a few like this one — and earlier than I thought, and even tired, I was like… why not?**

 **So I hope you enjoy this installment. And I promise next week there'll be an update for Mating Policies — it's been a month already, I know xD**

 **Disclaimer: Takahashi owns InuYasha, I own this plot and the OCs. All brands and places here mentioned are real and I don't own them.**

 **Warning: OCCness.**

 **Happy reading!**

* * *

 _PS I'm still not over you_

 **III – The proud and prejudiced Prince Yokai**

* * *

 _No! For Christ's sake, Sesshomaru, just no!_

Her shocked answer — coupled with a slap that hurt his pride — not only surprised him but filled him with anger as well.

Sesshomaru was not sure yet why he was angry, but he was. It was instantaneous. As soon as he heard the negative answer escaping her lips, his chest was immediately filled with some kind of sensation he could not quite describe, but that had him seething in… pure hate.

 _Shame._

He wished he was angry with her, but it was he himself he was mad at. The demon was ashamed of himself.

Usually he as a controlled man. _No._ He was _always_ a controlled man. His own master. Everything was always under strict control when it came to the proud and powerful Takahashi Sesshoumaru. Nothing ever went wrong. Be it his business or his personal life.

Mainly if he limited the term personal life to women.

What was most ironic in all this situation, was to think that Kagura, the bitch who tried to control him for so many years, never got to undermine his perfect control while Rin, the lover he did not have any contact with for seven years, did that easily.

Too easily to his liking.

 _For fuck's sake!_

He ran his clawed hand over his perfect silver tresses and watched the magnificent sight only his office could offer. Instead of small windows, the entire background of his gigantic office was made of glass, from top to bottom. From floor to ceiling.

Thankfully, they were in the 33º floor, and no one could ever see what he did there, or whomever he invited in. He, on the other hand, could see everything taking place down there, in the busy streets of the Marunouchi financial district.

The Takahashi Tower was extremely tall, more than 750 feet,a real skyscraper and if not for housing the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory, it would be one of the tallest in Japan.

Not that the demon cared. No one could ever deny how beautiful and important the Takahashi Tower was, mainly because it offered more than a privileged vision of the city to few like him. The last 250 feetwere donated to the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory **—** a place in which astronomical researches took place and poor children could come and study a rather elitist topic for free. Not to mention the fact it was open for humans to watch astronomical phenomena that could be seen by naked eye, even if staff and necessary equipment were always at their disposal.

Being an inu daiyokai, Sesshomaru did not need any of it to appreciate the constellations or planets. He could easily see them from his penthouse in Minami-Azabu.

To think about constellations, planets and their stories made him think about Rin.

 _Rin..._

She loved stars. Their stories. Their mythology... He promised once to take her to the _Tanabata Matsuri_ as soon as they came back to Japan. They broke up before they could even decide about going back. As a remembrance, only the nights he spent in the balcony of his penthouse watching the stars.

He never set foot back in another Planetary. It brought too many memories of days they spent staring at the stars — she did, he was always watching her and her breathtaking smile — and pointing constellations.

 _Rin..._

He wished he could blame her. He wanted to blame her for how ashamed he felt.

A demon as powerful as he was could not get so low to the point of asking a human to marry him. And yet… He did it and he did not even know why.

All he knew is that when he kissed her every coherent thought flew off his mind. The only thing to cross his mind was related to how Rin was _his._

 _Hiraku was his._

He would never let them go.

It was not love.

 _Kami._

Someone like him did not have time to love. To unnecessary and silly feelings. To him, it was all about property. About possession.

It did not matter that Rin and Hiraku were inferior to him. Both, human and hanyo were his property.

They belonged to him.

And Sesshomaru would be damned if he could not make Rin say yes.

His pride was brutally wounded. It was a matter of honor now.

 **#**

"I hope you don't give up last minute, Rin."

"Of course not!" she said, sitting in front of Onigumo. Both spent the last few hours locked up in his office between a conference and another with the _Van Gogh Museum._ After her brief meeting the last day with Sesshomaru — and she hated how she could not get him off her mind — she could not help but feel slightly bothered by their proximity.

Clearly, Onigumo was quite smart and before her imminent depart, he took it on him to close a deal with one of the most important and biggest Holland museums and, in the process, put one of his best employees working there.

Rin would make sure their partnership was not broken, or at least make them consider giving him always some kind of advantage in business. The ever ambitious Onigumo would not let such a chance escape between his fingers.

If not for that horrible conclusion of their meeting — the demon has probably gone mad to ask her, _out of all people,_ that —, she would have considered his business proposition. It was quite tempting after all, she could not deny that.

And honestly, she was still mad at her boss for making her change plans last minute. There was very little she hated more than people who broke their promises and Onigumo promised to let her come and go as she pleased. In the last minute, however, he decided she was crucial in the business deal he was trying to close with the Dutch museum.

To this point, she did not see how she fit in his plot. Despite the fact she was to work in the _Van Gogh_ _Museum_ as soon as she moved back to Holland, she did not understand how she could be valuable staying here in Japan for his next exhibition — the same he would send to the European country later on.

"Rin?" he asked with a half-smile.

"I'll be there," she answered quickly.

"Good."

There was silence for quite a long time. Rin kept revising the terms of the partnership agreement to be signed in the Opening Ball of the Sengoku Jidai Exhibition, in two weeks. Although the museum was Dutch, the agreement was in English and the main product to be exchanged was the exposition of Japanese items of Onigumo's collection on the Dutch museum — it is, after the brief Japanese exhibition, of course.

He seemed adamant she could only go — if possible, after demanding he always added the please to the ending of his sentences, in a creepy demonstration of understanding and respect for her choices — after the Opening Ball — to be sponsored by the Takahashi Enterprises.

Rin almost sighed in defeat as she saw the agreement signed that morning by both parties. Sesshomaru's calligraphy was still refined and elegant as she recalled and Onigumo's was… As creepy as the man himself.

She was paranoid.

Honestly, if it all took place a few days prior, she would not find it so bothersome to be in her boss' presence, but after her meeting with Sesshomaru and his unsettling disposition last afternoon she could not say the same.

He could be a manipulative bastard, but he knew what he was doing when he came up with a business proposition to anyone. He did not get to the top by being blind to what surrounded him and when he

 _How would you like to work for the Takahashi Cultural?_

And it quite did not match with the agreement she had in hands now. He agreed to sponsor Onigumo — someone he wanted her to part ways with — after all.

 _No._

She shook her head.

Onigumo would do nothing to harm her. He was not that crazy.

Sesshomaru was the one trying to draw her closer — and by using an irrecusable business proposition.

 _Name your price and the position of curator shall be yours._

 _Yes._

It was actually good to be in Onigumo's company. If she were not with him, revising agreements and cataloguing items to be exposed, she would be thinking of Sesshomaru and all the emotions their last encounter evoked — more than she already did.

Rin spent the last seven years telling herself she would be ready to meet him again — if needed, for she would never look for him willingly —, that he would not have such effect over her anymore and that she would not correspond to his very advances.

And look at her right now…

Melting in his arms, letting him kiss her as if there was no tomorrow. She even forgot that in that very space, that tiny flat, her son was soundly sleeping.

The mere remembrance made her cheeks burn with embarrassment.

And then, he came with what she feared the most.

A marriage proposal.

A _fucking_ marriage proposal.

Where did Sesshomaru have his head to think she could possibly say yes? Did he forget that he abandoned her in Holland and on top of that he said he could never love a human? That demons could not love?

And that he never answered her desperate callings?

Did he forget that he left her to raise Hiraku by herself for six years? That she almost died on childbirth all alone, _abandoned,_ back in Holland?

He let her face, _alone,_ she had to emphasize, all the hormonal changes, to get used to the demon instincts every waxing gibbous. Not to mention the first months, that everything was different about raising a hanyo baby? That she cried several nights while Hiraku cried in pain because his fluffy ears were inflamed? She lost count how many times she had to paint him as hero, so not to disappoint the boy in need of a father. And watched him cry — more than once — because according to those children he was no more than a dumb _fatherless_ demon.

She did not only feel angry at his proposal. She felt something she could not even being to put into words. That slap was nothing compared to what he deserved.

If she could, she would have killed him for only dare to think she ever could say yes.

Onigumo's voice was getting louder and louder as he called her. She blinked furiously and shifted her attention back to him.

How long has he been calling her?

"Sorry…" She bit her bottom lip. "I was distracted."

"I asked about your airfare to Holland."

"Ah…" She knew her face was probably flushed, "I managed to cancel it and they are going to refund half of it."

Eyes on her, Onigumo produced a bank check from inside his blazer and wrote off her name.

"How much?"

"What?" She stopped what she was doing and stared at him in utter surprise.

"The amount not refunded. How much?"

"It's not nec—

"Of course it is!" He interrupted her, placing his hand over hers. His touch made her want to recoil her hand immediately. She did not do it just because she could not think of a way that would not be considered rude. But it did not mean she liked the way he stare at her either. "I made you stay longer, so it's only fair that I refund you the lost money." His next words came out as a whisper, "and, if I could, I would make you stay forever."

Rin removed her hand at once, in an irrational urge to slap him dominated her.

"I-I..."

"Rin, it's an order."

"Okay... I need to check it... I'll tell you later."

He arched an eyebrow and watched her carefully.

"I'm not letting you escape me."

She shivered. Even if she understood the meaning of his words, it seemed there was a far more profound and hidden connotation to them.

For a moment, Sesshomaru's business proposition flashed back in her mind.

 _Name your price and the position of curator shall be yours._

"Lunch?"

Rin blinked. His ability to change topics stunned her. She nodded. Perhaps, with her stomach full, she would stop thinking about Sesshomaru.

Perhaps she would stop thinking Onigumo was acting out of character.

 **#**

Sesshomaru finished his sake and rose from the _zabuton_ in which he was sitting on. He had just closed an important deal with one of the most important financial magazines in Japan.

He needed to come out as a victim in that whole situation in order to restore the _little_ faith people _still_ had in him and Takahashi Co. To do that, he needed more than ever some advertisement — good advertisement — and nothing like one of the most specialized magazines to promote he and his corporation.

Given the world crisis, it was getting harder and harder to convince people to pay interest rate in a capitalist society and make loans at Takahashi Co. However, Sesshomaru was extremely good at convincing people.

A born manipulator, he had elevated the enterprise that began as a simply money lender to the very top in the financial world due to his ability, surpassing even the great and powerful InuTaisho.

Even if he spoke little, he exuded power.

And his financial products gave power to whoever bought them, or the idea of power, which, for most humans and demons alike was almost the same.

The world was about power and having power over others was something that Sesshomaru had learned early on.

Something he prided himself to have learned. An ability he prided himself to have mastered.

A skill he would never give up on having.

Having power over him, on the other hand, was something only one person ever came closer to have. Someone he believed to be part of his past but that now returned untimely like a thunderbolt to his life.

Glancing back one more time to the booked room in the restaurant, he opened his shōji doors. He just did not expect to find the very woman that lately dominated his thoughts walking beside the man he had closed an excellent deal the day before.

But as soon as the surprise came, it was gone.

"Onigumo."

"Takahashi."

 **#**

Rin's heart almost escaped her mouth as soon as she faced the haughty figure leaving the booked room beside the one she was about to enter.

She gulped.

And tried to control her heartbeats, aware the demon could hear it himself meters away.

How she hated the power Sesshomaru had over her.

She hated even more the fact she was incapable of reading his very expression. He was always so… serious and unmoving, she could say he was not even human. She bit her bottom lip. He was far from human... But she knew demons had feelings and often showed them in a physical way… Yet... her ex-lover was something else entirely.

Takahashi Sesshomaru was like a wall… an icy wall. _An icy prince._ She doubted any person was ever capable of understanding what was going through his very mind. And she thought once — back there in Holland — she knew him, but the man of before — the demon she learned to love — seemed to be dead in the businessman she faced now. There was not even a fragment of that passionate man she once met.

Perhaps this figure has never existed in the first place.

Standing face to face, both stared at each other for a second.

"Rin, are you coming in?"

"Of course." She blinked, emerging from the trance-like state she was in. With a nervous smile, she strode to the entrance of the reserved room. However, before she could step in, his fingers touched her elbow firmly.

Her cinnamon eyes closed on his golden narrowed ones. He wrinkled his nose and as he smelled that Onigumo's scent all over her, he could not help but growl in a low tone to make her submit.

If it was any other person, it may have worked, but Rin merely pursed her lips into a thin line.

"Let go of me."

"Do not try to run away from me, Rin. It's useless."

"Let go of me, Sesshomaru," she repeated firmly, her heart beating like crazy in her chest.

She cast one last glance at her boss, but he watched their very interaction with a curious gaze. Not even once he seemed keen to intervene. The demon pulled Rin to his booked room and closed the shōji doors behind himself. She smoothed out her green tube dress and let out a tired sigh.

"When I say let go, you let go."

If she was a woman inclined to curses, she might as well have said _you_ _fucking let go,_ but she had been raised in a very traditional circle in which curses did not fit anywhere.

"You better get used to it, Rin" he announced as he glanced at his watch. "This Sesshomaru shall see you and Hiraku very often from now on."

Her cinnamon eyes grew wide at his statement. Needless to mention her heart almost stopped for a moment. She had consulted her friends and according to them, it was easy for a man like Sesshomaru to convince all of the judges he was more suitable than her to take care of Hiraku.

And it goes without saying she was utterly afraid of him taking Hiraku's custody from her. She needed to get back to Holland as soon as possible. There, under Dutch law, she would feel safer. No one would dare to touch her son.

"You're not taking him away from me!" she snapped and stared at him, her jaw set firmly. Her hands were at her side and if not for pressing her nails against her palms, she would probably have slapped him _again._

Sesshomaru stared at her for a moment, taken aback by her sudden outburst. It took him a while to speak, but when he did, his voice was cold, toneless.

"Don't be stupid." His eyes were hard, icy. Devoid of any emotion. "This Sesshomaru has never claimed to take Hiraku's custody."

"No?"

Rin sighed, utterly relived. And blinked, in absolute confusion.

 _Thanks God!_

For a moment, she felt herself relax in the presence of the demon, but she quickly learned it was a mistake.

"I just wanted to say…" He removed a strand of black hair from her face, his clawed fingers touching her chin. She held her breath as soon as she felt him coming closer, his mouth on her ear as he whispered, "it's just a matter of time before I get a yes from you."

"Never."

"I will see you soon." Before he broke apart completely, he ran his warm lips over her creamy neck, making sure to imprint his scent on her. Then he put her an arm away and aware how much she hated to be called like that, he spoke, the sides of his mouth titled slightly upwards, " _my Rin._ "

 **#**

Hiraku hated aikido classes with all his heart. From the bottom of his tiny, innocent heart.

It only served to make him suffer more and more; to be bullied by his _friends —_ if he could call them that. How he hated Japan and all those people. He missed Holland and the small houseboat they lived in.

He was still unable to understand why she gave up on embarking on the first flight back to Amsterdam, why she insisted on staying on that horrible country. He was a Dutch, he was born and raised — he was almost an adult now, a _man_ — in Holland. Japan just did not sit well with him, even if he has learned the language at the same time he learned Dutch.

She thought he would learn to control his rage and avoid fights in school. Little did she knew he would not only fight more, but be more enthusiastic and skilled at it too. He could not understand why she was always mad at him for doing what his father — if his was still alive, because his mother never said what had happened to him — should have been doing — it is, protecting her honor.

Back in Holland, no one was ever bothered she was a single mother. Back in Holland, he was never bothered about the absence of his father. Now, after six months living in Japan and being called _fatherless_ to exhaustion, he started to hate his sire.

If people were calling his mother _names_ — horrible and sickening names — it was because his father was absent. And he hated him for that. If he ever saw him, he would have a lot of explaining to do. Starting how he could let go of his mother.

Tying back the straight silver hair that insisted on falling on his shoulders and face in a firm ponytail, Hiraku concentrated on the two opponents in the _tatami._ The winner would face him in the next and last round.

He wrinkled his nose as he smelled a characteristic scent in his surroundings, looking for its owner. There was a very powerful and demonic aura as well — the very same he felt surrounding his mother twice.

The _acquaintance_ — or whatever he was — was sitting on the bleachers. He stared at him firmly for a few seconds and wondered what he was doing there.

It did not matter.

He looked back at the fight taking place in front of his very eyes. Soon, the teacher was calling him. He shifted his golden eyes back to the powerful demon that seemed always close now.

Hiraku bowed before his opponent in a demonstration of respect. He hoped his mother's acquaintance was closer when he was done with that round. He had one or two things to ask of him.

Right now, he had a fight to win.

 **#**

Sesshomaru had little, close to none will to go back to the office. Instead, he found himself heading towards Hiraku's school. Soon, he was entering the gymnasium where the informal aikido competition took place.

According to his father, Hiraku was the best of his class and invariably he always got into fights because of his abilities. Older children did not know how to handle a younger, more powerful opponent.

They were no more than jealous, disposable little things.

 _Petty._

However, he was not there to confirm what his father said. On the contrary, he wanted to prove him wrong; he wanted to prove that a _half-breed_ could not be that good.

 _No hanyo could._

He watched as he faced several opponents and stand still unharmed, till he was the last one standing. Every fight was a piece of cake for him, as if he did not even break a sweat.

The boy won all of them easily.

Sesshomaru tightened his jaw. Even if he had won each fight with extreme ease, he was no more than a hanyo. He broke up with Rin back in Holland because of this, because someone like him was destined to father a pure-blooded demon, not a half-breed like Hiraku.

And against his best wishes, there he was… Father of a hanyo that had more of him than he was willing to admit.

He watched the gymnasium go empty, all children and teachers long gone. Hiraku still wore his white kimono and he seemed to have some difficult keeping his straight hair in place. He wondered if Rin once tried to cut his hair once. He knew what was bound to happen. His hair would automatically grow back.

The boy stared at him and tied his obi more firmly around his waist. It was clear he wanted to have a word, but before any of them could move — or let go of that staring contest, Sesshomaru had to give the boy some credit; he did not submit or show fear not even once, _not_ _even being in the presence of his superior_ —, some older children, almost teens, including the boy who lost to Hiraku, entered the gymnasium.

One did not need to be intelligent to know what was going to happen.

Sesshomaru felt his facial muscles tighten, but he remained quiet. He would not intervene. He had no reasons to. Hiraku was not in his best interests. He was not interested in protecting him — a hanyo, he had to emphasize that. _Not ever._

He was his property, _yes,_ but he was not worried about his well-being. The boy could very well disappear, and he would not care less.

"What's up, _fluffy_? Ready for another beating?"

Hiraku remained quiet — and so did he —, and greeted his little teeth angrily. One of the boys pushed him back by placing two fingers against his forehead. The same forehead the crest of his family lay proudly.

"You aren't gonna say anything, _fatherless_? Did that whore of a mother of yours cut off your tongue?"

Hiraku growled. Not as menacingly as Sesshomaru would have done, but the demon could still hear the sound clear with his sensitive ears. He almost growled himself. Teenagers — brats, they were no more than brats — should not be saying those words. About Rin none the less.

Even then, he remained still as Hiraku punched the boy on the face. The smell of blood was quick on his nostrils. He watched as the hanyo took three of them to the floor with ease. The fourth of them disappeared from his line of sight and returned later with a baseball bat and aiming it at his son.

Distracted as he was, with two of them back on their fights and over him, he would not be able to dodge it or to defend himself. He tightened his jaw and before he could even realize it, he was standing in front of Hiraku, his right hand intercepting the blow aimed at the hanyo.

"If you value your pathetic lives, you will leave this instant."

 **#**

It all happened so fast he barely had any time to process it all. That man that left his mother all nervous was in front of him, holding the baseball bat and making those annoying boys run away before he could even say anything else.

When Sesshomaru shifted his attention back to the boy, his eyes were still slightly taken by the red color that scared the older brats away. He willed the orbs to go back to their usual golden color.

Hanyo were such a taboo that human and demons alike rejected them. Stronger than humans and weaker than demons, they were not accepted by any of the groups. Some felt entitled to punish them for their very existence — that seemed to the very case with those envious boys.

He tightened his jaw again and arched one eyebrow as he watched Hiraku tighten the obi in his waist and give him his back as if Sesshomaru had not just saved his excuse of a life.

"Aren't you going to thank me?"

What kind of education did Rin give the boy? What kind of person did not thank someone after being saved? Besides he himself, of course.

"I never asked your help."

Sesshomaru froze in place. Now he understood why he did not want children before and why the mere sight of those little pricks annoyed the hell out of him. However, Hiraku was so alike himself he was all of a sudden amused.

"And why would you help me?" the boy questioned, turning on his heels to face him.

There was no answer from the demon. He did not know the answer himself. Why? He narrowed his eyes before the strong smell of blood that entered his nose and saw the boy touching his lower lip, his fingers stained with a rich crimson color.

Before he could realize it, he produced a handkerchief with his initials embroidered and offered it to the boy. As he merely watched him with his confused and big golden eyes, he pressed the small cut with his forefinger himself.

Hiraku's eyes, so alike his — so filled with rebellion before — widened at the gesture. And then came the question that shocked Sesshomaru to death.

"Are you…" There was a slight tremor in the infantile voice, "my father?"

Both stared at each other for a moment. Sesshomaru thought he had gone mad, but he seemed to have seen a mixture of both hope and curiosity in his son's eyes.

Nevertheless, when he replied — when the answer finally came —, it surprised the two of them.

"No."

His voice was no more than a whisper.

A confused and angered whisper.

He was not sure why he lied, he just could not tell the truth. And even if he was about to fix his mistake — because that was huge one, Sesshomaru was quite aware of that —, the boy surprised him once again, his childlike voice sounded firm in the gymnasium.

"Good. Because I would hate to be son of someone who scares my mother."

 **#**

Rin was upset beyond imagination. For three main reasons: at first, there was her meeting with Sesshomaru that afternoon. Ever since, she could not concentrate on anything else; the rest of her day was not as productive as her morning and she hated herself for it.

Then, there was her boss. During the whole lunch, he threw her way one or two questions about her interaction with Sesshomaru and as the hours went by, he seemed all the more interested about her relationship with the demon he was partners with. If possible — it is, if he did not have a date, which was a ridiculous assumption —, she would be his date on the Opening Ball.

It had her almost clinging to Onigumo's black hair and tearing it apart. He could not be serious.

And lastly, Hiraku was too much quiet for her liking.

Her son was not a talkative boy — always too much introspective, true — but _this…_? this was more than she could handle. Rin knew he cast many information aside when he told her about his day.

He did not complain when she combed his silvery hair after his shower — a frequent and annoying occurrence. Their time was always filled with tiny growls and complaints. Sometimes she wished he would just go quiet and let her finish it at once.

 _Ouch, mom!_

 _It hurts, mom!_

 _Mom, slower!_

But this time there was none of that. On the contrary, there was only silence and he seemed too much focused on the peeled wall to pay attention to his mother combing his tangled hair.

And while she read one of his favorite tales he did not make her stop to read again and punctuate the sentences to perfection — another annoying trait of his — as he usually liked. He simply fell asleep.

She kissed his forehead lovingly and left his room, shaking her head. There was something wrong with her little prince — demon, to be exact.

Now, as she worked putting the clothes on the washing machine, her thoughts and heart still in Hiraku, she found something she did not quite expect.

Her heart seemed to have stopped for a moment — and that was such a frequent occurrence since she met Sesshomaru not even a week ago. Her fingers crumpled the small handkerchief with the T.S. golden initials.

"Sesshomaru, I'm gonna kill you."

 **#**

He was about to leave the Takahashi Tower when he heard the annoying voice of the receptionist — Yura, a woman obsessed with his hair — arguing with someone. Usually, he would have ignored her and her antics while receiving whoever it was in the main atrium, but he was stopped short in his track at the voice replying back at her.

"I don't _fucking_ care about my messed hair. I am here to see Takahashi Sesshomaru and I'm not leaving till I talk to him."

To see Rin in his building was a surprise in itself, to see and _hear_ Rin cursing was surely something out of this world.

She barely ever cursed — she was too much of a lady to that. Too much of a kind and sweet person to ever use foul language at whoever taunted her. And when she did, it was usually not a word directed to the person, as in that case.

"Why would I let someone with split ends talk to Shachō?"

Rin sighed, completely frustrated. At both the receptionist and at herself. She asked to talk to Sesshomaru — without an appointment, she did not even think she may need one — and all the woman seemed to do was talk about her hair and her horrible split ends.

"Listen, why do you even care about my hair?"

"How could someone not care about their hair? Hair is personality, my love. Hair is soul. Hair is—

"Leave her alone, Yura."

The deep voice dragged their attention to him. Rin's tired expression of before turned into one of lividness.

"Sesshomaru-sama!"

Yura was delighted to see him — delighted to see his impeccable hair high up in a ponytail; she always thought the hairstyle suited him. It made him look younger, virile.

"She wanted to visit you, Shachō, but I couldn't allow, not when she has such made not an appointment and…

He paid the receptionist no attention. Her entire speech seemed like an incomprehensible _bla bla bla._ He gestured to the guard to allow Rin entry on the turnstiles and focused his attention on her.

Honestly, he did not expect her to look for him so soon and knowing her as he did — and having seen her curse — he was painfully aware it was not a pleasurable visit.

"Rin."

In two steps she was over him, her right hand against his left cheek. Everyone in the main atrium gasped and turned to face them. There very few people in the Takahashi Tower, but he was sure the ones who watched their interaction were recording as she slapped him once again.

"Ouch!" Yura let out. Many followed her in her surprised exclamation.

The demon closed his eyes for a second, his chest vibrating with a growl that was threatening to leave his mouth.

"Rin."

His golden eyes were still closed as he breathed deeply. If it was any other person, indifferent to gender or social position, he would have slapped back with twice the strength. But it was Rin in front of him and everything was always different when it concerned her.

He opened his eyes in time to see her lifting her hand to strike him once again, anger so very clear in her youthful and flushed face.

"Enough." His voice was low and deep.

A warning.

He was not let himself get hit once more. It was time Rin knew who she was dealing with.

Sesshomaru pulled her to the VIP elevator and pressed the button number 33. He could have pressed her against the walls, but he figured out that for the time being — it is, as the lift took its time to reach his floor —, he should cool his head.

It would do him no good to act out harshly.

Her blood pumped quickly on her veins and he could hear heart beating madly against her chest.

"Let me go," she hissed.

"You came to me," he stated, more calmly than he was. "Now we _will_ have words."

Before she could reply, the doors opened and he walked to his office, where he threw her over one of the comfortable armchairs. He came to a halt in front of her, his arms crossed over his chest in a very haughty position.

"Explain yourself."

"Get away from my son."

" _Our_ son," he corrected, inclining over her.

He did not mean to scare her or to yank any other reaction from her, but as he leaned as close to have his breath caressing her face and her sweet scent filling his nostrils — and he caught a spiked scent he did not expect — he walked away.

"What do you want?"

He was sure he would curse himself later — he already did —, but he had to walk away from Rin. Last night he did the unthinkable and proposed to a mere human, he did not want to think what he may do now if he continued to close to her.

To her intoxicant presence and scent.

"I want you to stay away from my son."

 _Our son,_ he almost corrected her again, but he suppressed those words from leaving his lips — from leaving his traitorous mind, for that matter. He was not ready to be a father — to accept the idea of already being one — that very afternoon and he said to the boy himself he was not _his_ father, so why did he feel the need to correct Rin now, out of the blue?

"And if I do not?" he asked as he leaned again over her. With her now much straight position, their noses almost brushed. He watched as she bit her bottom lip and tried to cover a shiver as he slithered his clawed fingers over her nude forearms — she still wore that green tube dress that fit her delectable frame gorgeously. "I presume you have changed your mind, since you came looking for me, _my Rin_ …"

He loved how flushed she became — from anger or embarrassment — whenever he said she was _his._ Aware he had the upper hand, he placed both arms on the armchair, caging her between his powerful broad body and the chair. He felt her shivering at his gesture and his hunter posture.

She gasped deliciously as he ran his nose on her neck. He almost purred in delight when he felt his scent was still predominant on her, even if he still felt traces of that disgusting human.

"Move away," she said firmly, pushing him by his chest.

He placed both hands over hers and watched as her eyes widened. It had been a while since Rin had last felt his heart beating that closely. Perhaps she forgot he had a heart — sometimes he did.

The sides of his mouth titled ever so slightly.

The Gods had given him a golden opportunity and he was not going to let it go to waste.

 **#**

Rin felt her heart on the verge of escaping her mouth at any moment. Her eyes were so widened, they could very well pop out of her head and she would be good as blind.

How did she end in such situation?

Rather: why did it always end that way?

Did Sesshomaru knew how much he affected her? She was sure he did. And that's why he always managed to cage her.

She knew how stupid she was for acting without thinking first and for leaving Hiraku with Sara to look for Sesshomaru.

And in truth, she knew the cut on the commissure of his lips had nothing to do with him, even if his silence had some sort of connection to the demon in front of her. However, as soon as she saw the handkerchief with his initials she did not think straight.

She gulped and closed her eyes as she felt his mouth so close hers, his sculpted nose breathing in her scent and his expert hands sliding over her arms in a slow caress that could only get better if she was stark naked in his arms.

Rin hated herself for thinking like that and for being so weak, but all she wanted right now was for him to take off their clothes — yank off in truth — and make love to her right there, in his office with Tokyo's horizon as a background.

However, before he could even kiss her — if that was even in his plans —, he broke apart and walked to the door, opening it at once. His back became suddenly straight and his posture too much rigid to her liking.

"Father."

 **#**

Sesshomaru growled low at his father — the great and haughty InuTaisho. He had his arms crossed around his chest and was leaning against the threshold.

"I hope I didn't interrupt anything." He smiled, entering the office. "I was not aware you had company."

Despite his thoughtful declaration, the gleam in his eyes told the contrary, which made his son even more annoyed at him.

"Of course you didn't," Rin stated, biting her bottom lip. _Thankfully you arrived,_ she thought. "I was just leaving."

"And who is this beautiful lady…?"

"InuTaisho." Sesshomaru's voice had a hint of warning.

His father merely shrugged and smiled innocently at the woman sitting very straight in one of the armchairs in his son's office. He knew very well who she was, but he was curious to see how Sesshomaru would introduce her to him.

While his grandson was already acquainted to his uncle, he had seen his own grandfather just once — a mere glance when he was leaving InuYasha's house and he was just arriving. If not for Kagome carrying the sleepy boy in her arms, InuTaisho was sure he would have at least a good chat with his first grandson.

"Father, this is Ueno Rin… Rin, this is my father, Takahashi InuTaisho."

 _So, no titles for her… Interesting,_ he thought to himself. It could only mean his stubborn firstborn did not make a move on her — which did not match what he heard and smelled minutes before — or he did and was awfully rejected.

 _Pity._

They would make a beautiful pair.

Still smiling — he rarely smirked, even if that was a situation in which he should be more prone to smirk —, he brought Rin's outstretched hand to his lips, kissing it gentlemanly.

"Enchanted to meet you, Rin-san."

His gallanttone and posture had her flushing from head to toe. A trait he was first enchanted when he met his Izayoi so many years before.

"Shyness is always a virtue, my dear… Always a virtue."

Sesshomaru tightened his jaw before his father's tone, but he gave no indication he was about to pull him back and away from his... InuTaisho did not have a name for what Rin was. More than the mother of his son and less than his mate.

 _Yet._

He smelled her. The air around her. It was obvious his son did not have it in him to mark her yet. However, the little bastard had more than quickly imprinted his scent on her — even if it was an ephemeral thing, it demonstrated how territorial he was with this woman.

And it could not have been different. If he was so careless to the point of having an affair with a _ningen_ woman and later got her pregnant, it could only mean she was more important than Sesshomaru's horrible nature let out.

"Would you…" She gestured for him to let go of her, feeling slightly bothered for having her hand still trapped between the demon's.

"Of course…" He smiled. "Of course." He patted her hand; his smile was so happy and big, Rin could almost count all of his sharp teeth. "Well… I'll leave you alone. I hope to see you soon, Rin-san."

"Please, stay." She was still blushing. _How gorgeous._ "I was just leaving. I wouldn't dare to interrupt you."

"You didn't interrupt anything. I was just checking if Sesshomaru had gone home." He blinked. "You know, he is used to work till daylight and sometimes he forgets to get some sleep or to eat."

Sesshomaru watched their interaction in silence. His father knew what he was doing with Rin in his office — he could hear and smell them from meters away and he was sure his father knew it was Rin and no other woman with him —, if he decided to interrupt them it was simply because he was having a lot of fun with it.

The mere thought almost made him growl in frustration.

He was close.

So very close.

 _Fuck!_

"Well, I really have to go," Rin said, crossing the threshold. Her heart finally beating in a healthy cadence. She was so relieved to be going home.

It was a mistake to look for Sesshomaru.

It was a mistake to come back to Japan.

It was — and still is, she is quite aware of that — a mistake to still nurture feelings for him.

"Why don't you give her a ride, Sesshomaru?"

The demon watched his father with interest, but there was no touch of it in his face. She stared at him over her shoulder, trapping her bottom lip between her teeth, visibly nervous at the possibility of staying in his company for more time.

Her nervousness was sufficient to have him making up his mind, his golden eyes darkening slightly at the sight of her plump lips between her teeth and all the things he could do _to_ them and _with_ them.

"Why not?"

 **#**

"You didn't have to," she said, unable to take off her eyes from the window — even if she could not see anything outside. It gave her some sort of comfort and somehow confidence to be able to stare at other stuff instead of him and his disconcerting golden eyes.

The entire way back was made in complete silence; each trapped in their thoughts.

Sesshomaru was thoroughly concentrated on the road. However, he was very conscious of the woman by his side, of her nervousness.

 _Her fear._

Rin was afraid of him.

She was absolutely terrified he could come to harm Hiraku.

He wanted to be feared by everyone else but Rin. _Never Rin._

Such finding had him shaking with anger. He wanted to hit the steering wheel and force her to look at him while he stated he would never be able to hurt her, or the boy — even if he was no more than a hanyo.

However, he knew it would have the contrary effect.

Worse: he had hurt her before.

Not physically — _never,_ themere thought revolved him. He would rather die than hurt her.

But with his harsh words. When he said she was no more than a human and that he would never be able to love her because of her humanity.

That demons were incapable of love.

If he knew, at that time, that Rin was carrying his son — hanyo or not — he would never let go of her.

He knew she was different. Her skin glowed. Her smell was extremely inviting and weeks before their imminent separation, Sesshomaru seemed unable to keep his hands off her.

She was breeding already.

He would use any and every excuse to make love to her. The demon was never prudish, so he did not mind taking her in each place he could think off. He would kiss her till every coherent thought left her and all that was left was a lusty cloud wrapping them.

And he should have suspected. But he knew close to nothing about hanyo pregnancies.

When he broke up, Rin was already pregnant and only the gods could know what happened during that damned pregnancy. To breed hanyos were still taboo in the modern world. Demons, as respected as they were, did not mingle with humans and vice versa.

He stopped his car in front of her building and watched her out of the corner of his eyes. She tried to open the locked door and turned back to him. A tired sigh left her lips.

"What do you still want from me?"

"Your answer."

She bit her bottom lip.

"You want a yes, not my real answer."

Sesshomaru removed his seat belt and shifted his attention back to her, his finger removing a strand of raven hair from her big cinnamon eyes.

She tried to break apart, but she was paralyzed when she felt his fingers on her lower lip.

Her breath stopped on her throat.

"Sesshomaru… _Please._ "

"Do not run away from what you want, Rin."

She closed her eyes at his tender caress and the way he spoke her name. All she wanted was for him to kiss her badly as he always did in the past. However, she knew it was not the Sesshomaru from seven years ago; the demon she loved. It was not the Holland of so much time ago and she _was_ _not_ the same woman either.

"Is that your way of punishing me? You hate my very existence, Sesshomaru." Her voice came out strangled. She hated herself for wanting to cry and for feeling so affected by the fact her love was _still_ not returned as she wanted. "You hate me."

"I could never hate you."

His whispered brought some comfort to her sore, little heart. But she shook that thought away.

"You hate humans. You hate what Hiraku and I represent."

He wanted to say it was a lie. He wanted to say he did not hate what she… _they_ represented — what they were — but he would be lying and Sesshomaru could not find it in himself to lie once again in that day.

However, he did not hate her and did not hate the boy. How could he? She was the exception in his life. She has always been.

She knew that.

She had to know that.

But his pride and his prejudice towards humans and hanyo were such he was unable to tell Hiraku he was, in fact, his father and take him in his arms as any other father would have done and now tell Rin she was important in spite of her species.

"Rin…"

"Please, don't come looking for us again."

Sesshomaru was on the verge of despair now. He did not know what to do to make her understand it was beyond him. Stronger than him. It was not like he could help his hate towards her species… or feel superior when he was indeed of a superior race.

"You belong to me."

His whisper came out as an almost a possessive growl. He brushed their lips together and looked at her cinnamon orbs.

"I belong to no one besides myself and don't you dare to kiss me again."

Sesshomaru stared at her and the glint in her eyes were such he could not help but feel the sides of his mouth tilting upwards slightly.

He traced his finger on her bottom lip once again and unlocked the doors. Before Rin could leave, however, he was in front of her; his hand outstretched to help her disembark.

Unsure, Rin did not accept his help, but she was pulled to his strong arms all the same.

She widened her eyes as she felt one of his hands on her waist, the other tilting her head to give him better access to her neck.

The demon inhaled her scent before murmuring in a husky tone.

"Worry not, _my_ Rin. When I kiss you, you shall be more than desperate for my touch."

* * *

 **A/N – That's all for today, kids!**

 **I hope you have enjoyed this chapter. I certainly enjoyed writing it xD Always a pleasure to write a confused and enraged (with himself) Sesshomaru.**

 **I laughed a lot reading your reviews for last chapter. I didn't expect so many of you to wish her to say no, to slap him and even return to Holland. And while I may not take this turn or the other, it's always amazing to know your opinions xD And I can say we all agree Sesshomaru has to fight to have Rin back, don't you think? So, I'm not gonna go easy on you,** _ **fluffy.**_

 **Yes, this chapter is not as full of SessRin interactions as you I know would like, but there was the first encounter of father and son. What did you think? Did you like it? I'm curious to know your opinions.**

 **And your response to this new project continues to amaze me! So my biggest thank you to all the favorites, followers and those who reviewed last chapter (** tefuya06, Rucky, Mirja, azraelknight, therp, meravina, Guest, WildHeart44, lady of the west, Guest, Inu demon, Sailorstar1723, Guest, Guest, Emerald lynx, Orangelover121, Guest, Guest, Karrat, xXxSmartCookiexXx, kagomeLove2, **)** **and a special shout out to those who have reviewed all my InuYasha fics — you know who you are and you're amazing! This chapter is for you, my token of gratitude xD I wished to mention all of you, but I'm so sleepy, I'm sure I'm gonna leave someone out and I think it'd be horrible of me to do that, so…**

 **As for this chapter… Will you tell me what you think? I'd love to hear from you. Love it? Hate it?**

 **Now, I gotta get some sleep. I think I've made my share to earn it, don't you agree?**

 **Take care,**

 **Velvetsins**


	4. IV - All become pumpkins after midnight

**Hi, beloved readers!**

 **A bit late than usual, but here I am! xD**

 **My older readers are used to my crazy schedule and life, but this time it seems my body couldn't take it and I fell ill. Not severely, but enough for the company doctor to send me back home. I've been working nonstop for 13 hours a day and my body could only take so much. Couple it with endless meetings and toxic powerful people and being an overly sensitive person to those around me — even if I don't show it too much — and there you have it.**

 **In several ways, The Academy can be more harmful than the Financial World — and believe me when I say I met better people in working for a renowned bank than working for an also renowned University.**

 **It's funny because as soon as I left that toxic place and people I felt all better. And after getting a much-deserved rest, I could finish this chapter and update it for you. Hope you like it xD**

 **Enough with my babbling, happy reading!**

 _Engawa is an external corridor and Fusuma are sliding decorated panels in Japanese styled houses._

 **Disclaimer: Takahashi owns InuYasha, I own this plot and the OCs. All brands and places here mentioned are real and I don't own them.**

* * *

 _PS I'm (still not) over you_

 **IV – All become pumpkins after midnight**

* * *

"Hiraku, behave yourself," Rin said in the speakerphone. "I don't want to hear you didn't behave properly."

The big day had arrived. The Opening Ball, sponsored by the Takahashi Enterprises, would start at six p.m. and even if Rin was little excited she should go — as Sesshomaru's date none the less.

A sigh left her lips as she cast a glance at InuYasha. He was driving towards his home, where she was supposed to get dressed and ready for the party with Kagome — the entire Takahashi family was expected at the Opening Ball at the Palace Hotel Tokyo.

A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of meeting Sesshomaru so early in the day. She hoped to see him only when strictly needed — when she could not avoid him any longer. His words still burned in the back of her mind.

 _Don't run away from what you want._

She did not want him. As much as she still felt attracted to him, she did not want to be surrounded by someone who disliked her and her son for their species. And really, she was starting to think it was all because it has been a while since she last got laid.

Yes. Sesshomaru was only messing her thoughts and feelings because it had been far too long since she last indulged in a night of passion.

"Mom?"

She shook her head and shifted her attention back to the conversation taking place.

"Now, repeat our agreement."

There was a heavy breath in the other side of the connection. She could swear he was rolling his golden eyes.

"I have to finish my homework, go to bed at eight and eat all aunt Kikyo put in my plate without grimacing."

"Especially without grimaces," she agreed with a small smile. InuYasha looked at her out of the corner of his eyes and let out a low chuckle. "I love you, Hiraku."

"I love you too, mom."

His childish voice seemed lighter after the confession. Hiraku was not too much keen on expressing his feelings, but Rin knew how important it was for him to feel loved and cherished.

Especially after so many problems at school.

"Now, hand the phone back to aunt Kikyo."

There was a moment of silence, then they head Kikyo's voice.

"Rin."

"Thank you again, Kikyo. You have no idea how grateful I am."

"It was nothing, really… Besides, Isamu is happy to have his best friend here."

"I promise next time I'll have him coming over."

"You wouldn't want that. They're too much noisy and mischievous to your liking."

"They're but children!" InuYasha interjected, annoyed with them and their strict rules — Kagome was not off the hook with Shippo, their adopted son.

"And you," Kikyo's voice always became harder when she interacted with InuYasha. "Take care of my sister, you rude dog."

Rin had to muffle her laugh, at least she tried. It was funny watching their interactions. They used to be a cute couple in the past — or so she heard, but external circumstances made they break apart and years later when they met, InuYasha was dating Kagome — both unaware he had had a relationship with her sister in the past.

"Feh… Whatever, wench."

"InuYasha!" Rin was shocked with his rudeness. Even though she should be already used by now to his reckless demeanor.

"What?" He arched his eyebrows. "She is a wench!"

Rin shook her head, and tried to conceal the smile taking over her lips.

"Feh…" He shrugged and smiled as well. "Whatever."

 **#**

Sesshomaru was slightly surprised when his father called him so early in the morning for a brief meeting in his house. Honestly, since he moved to his penthouse, he barely set foot in what they called _Main House_. As much as he tried, it was quite difficult for him to consider it his home when there were very little that reminded him of his childhood or his mother.

Not to mention he did not like Izayoi in the tiniest bit. It seemed beyond forced her necessity to act as if she was his mother — not merely a stepmother. As if InuKimi herself was not alive and very much active in his life till one of these days.

Somehow, he knew the woman acted this way because she felt guilty. After all, she destroyed his family when she accepted to become his father's concubine — even if at the time she did not know InuTaisho to be married — happily or not.

He brought the cup of tea to his lips and closed his golden eyes as the birds sang cheerfully in the branches nearby. The shōji doors lay opened in the distanced room his father chose to talk to him — a space far away from prying ears and eyes.

What surprised him the most was the fact that the chosen room was the one with their relics — the same the hateful Onigumo wanted to have exposed in his exhibition.

"Kagome has felt a disturbance closer to Naraku's grave."

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes.

"I thought she lost her powers temporarily due to her pregnancy."

InuTaisho brought his cup of tea to his lips and hummed in delight. He even opened his mouth, but closed it afterwards as his wife crossed the opposite _engawa_ with a servant at her heels. Sesshomaru followed his line of sight a bit annoyed; even far away from the main wing they were still not left alone.

"Temporarily, yes," he spoke, dragging his son attention back to himself.

"What do you mean by _disturbance_?"

"She has also felt the _Shikon no Tama_ shards."

Sesshomaru pursed his lips into a thin line. As far as he was aware, the _Shikon_ Jewel had been destructed with Naraku a few years ago, he himself had been there and had granted the despicable hanyo the final blow.

"We must be ready for any eventuality."

The demon merely nodded and brought the cup to his lips once again. A few minutes of silence settled between father and soon as they stared outside, each lost in their own thoughts. Sesshomaru was about to open his mouth to ask his father a few more details when a very familiar smell assaulted his senses.

"Rin."

 **#**

 _There were few things Sesshomaru hated more than the boring convenience of the known and it was the discomfort of the unknown. Having set foot in Amsterdam for no more than a couple of days, his senses were still working like crazy as different scents, noises and figures assaulted him._

 _He knew it would take a while before he got comfortable with the myriad of sensations he was still experiencing. It was a relief then when his nose caught the familiar floral smell of a woman he got acquainted two nights prior. Rather: the woman Alexander Akkerman, one of his father's human friends, introduced to him._

 _She was not far away — in fact, he knew exactly in which session he would find her. The Van Gogh Museum housed now an exhibition starring Japanese illustrated books and as a dutiful art history student, she could not miss any chances of visiting an artistic house — certainly not one with an exhibition of her own country._

 _The demon already knew she was addicted to Museums — she said so herself as Akkerman chose her to give him a tour that night. In spite of her humanity, he found her company rather enjoyable. It was suddenly refreshing to speak Japanese in a place people expected you to speak either English or Dutch. She seemed happy herself to talk to someone of her home country, even if she seemed quite unsure about him being a demon._

 _It was amusing she was worried about his species, but not about how wealthy and important he was in any country he set foot in. And it stunned him she was aware of him and his family, even after living in a foreign land for so many years._

 _In a few seconds he found her. Back turned to him, she stared at a woodblock in a pensive manner. A few steps behind her, he used his time to admire her frame. She was short and petite, but delectable._

 _He almost snorted at the very thought. He had met her two nights prior and he was already thinking about dragging her to his bed. Truth be told, the problem did not lay in the time factor — he had never been shy or prude; bedding anyone he wanted whenever and wherever he wanted was never an issue — but her species._

 _She was human._

 _He should be disgusted at himself. Instead, he was_ lusting _after her._

 _How low would he fall before he hit the bottom line?_

"Okumura Masanobu," _he said, dragging her out of her own little world._

 _Gasping, Rin turned on her heels to face him. He was by her side, his hands pocketed in his high-branded trousers. Her bright smile caught him off guard and merely sparkled his curiosity._

" _Okumura, yes…" she agreed and returned her attention back to him. "A bit cliché, don't you agree?"_

" _I thought an art history would value the classics above everything else."_

 _There was a low laugh coming from her. She covered her mouth and looked around, afraid she had dragged any kind of attention to them. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice their very presence — even if missing someone such as Sesshomaru seemed highly unlikely._

" _I know… It's just there are so much amazing and underrated artists in our country for us to remain stuck within the Shogunate, don't you think? We are so much more than that."_

 _He stood silent for a moment. He had to agree with her. In his more than half millennia walking this Earth, he had seen uncountable artists and artistic movements rise and fall and later on be completely forgotten by humankind. As a witness of their very existence, only long-lived beings like him._

" _As you would say Holland is more than Van Gogh," he suggested approaching her. He kept the distance of less than an arm between them, his hands still in his pockets._

 _When she looked down and a raven lock slipped from her high ponytail, he had to control himself before he could place it behind her ear and touch her strands — he was dying to know if her hair felt as silky as it looked._

" _You could say that…" She smiled sheepishly and to his disappointment, smoothed her hair back in place. Another lock fell on her face._

" _Careful." He walked to her and held the raven strand between his tips. They were silkier than he thought. He longed to run his fingers in her hair and hold her close as he kissed her senseless. When her big cinnamon eyes locked on his, he broke apart and set two steps between them. "Someone can misinterpret your words and believe you dislike Van Gogh."_

" _But I love Van Gogh!" She wetted her lips nervously. "I mean how many Dutch artists the world knows? Uncountable, right? Can we say the same about Japanese artists?"_

 _There was a bit of silence between them as she turned back to the woodblock._

" _As much as I love the Sengoku Jidai, we are past that. There are many talents our there waiting to be discovered by the Western world."_

 _Sesshomaru wondered what she would say if she knew he only collected items from the_ Sengoku Jidai _— from paintings to furniture. He tightened his jaw — he had barely met her and was already thinking about bringing her home._

Pathetic.

 _The demon was painfully aware that what he needed to get her out of his mind — and stop having those funny thoughts — was to bed her at once. After he had her, he would get rid of her as quickly as the clouds covered the moon in rainy nights._

" _What I mean is… I want people to fall in love with Japanese artists as they fell for the great Kusama Yayoi; as they fell for any other Western artist."_

 _Sesshomaru was rather silent as she rumbled about art and passion and how impossible it was to disconnect both. He had met several people in his long life, but few had the same sparkle in the eyes Rin had. He was drawn to her and it was not at all related to how her body and floral scent called to his instincts._

 _It was about… He would rather not think about it._

" _Dinner?" he asked, outstretching his hand for her to take. She looked around, before placing her hand over his and letting him guide her outside._

" _I have to be home early," she commented when they were greeted by the fierce winds of early December. He lost no time to dispose of his coat and place it over her shoulders. She looked at him mildly surprised and whispered a_ Thank you, but you shouldn't… _he would not be able to understand if not for his sharp hearing._

" _I insist," he replied, opening the door of a cab for her to enter. "I promise not to keep you up all night."_

 **#**

"Rin."

At hearing her name, she turned around to face the man she did not want to see till later that night. Honestly, she did not expect to see him at all — even though she was in his home. Or his family home. And she was starting to ask herself why she agreed to — more like had been forced — to get ready for the Opening Ball with both Kagome and Izayoi.

Ah, yes… Kagome said he did not live there anymore and she would not bump into him in the corridors.

How wrong her friend was… And how naïve she herself was to ever believe in such fictitious tale.

"We shall have words."

She half expected him to touch her elbow or her arm and drag her to a far away place, away from InuYasha's prying ears.

Relief flooded her when he did not.

Instead, he gave her his back and walked down the _engawa_ , passing quickly by the beautiful and richly painted _fusuma,_ without giving her proper time to admire them — nor the plants and flowers in the gorgeous garden.

"What do you want?" she found herself asking as soon as he entered a distanced room.

As he closed the _sh_ _ō_ _ji_ doors behind himself, she half expected him to close the space between them and trap her between his body and the _fusuma_ — seeing there was no other furniture in the room.

It did not happen though.

He seemed to analyze her expression closely and guess which thoughts crossed his mind, for his eyes lit with amusement. She did not know how much he enjoyed acting as the true predator he was and cornering her.

Sadly, he had far more pressing matters to attend to.

"Sesshomaru?" she asked as his silence started to bother her.

"Do not leave my side tonight." His voice came low, a demand expressed through a whisper. She stared at him with widened eyes and blinked a few times. Not very much keen on giving her any explanations, he walked to leave the room.

Her shocked expression did not last more than a minute. In less then a second her voice reached his ears.

"I will do no such thing."

"I mean it, Rin." He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. "If you ever leave my side, I expect to find you with either my brother or my father."

For the first time, he did not feel like calling InuYasha his half-brother. If he paid attention to his words, he would certainly have corrected himself.

"Why?"

He took his time to reply, choosing his words very carefully. Her reaction was pretty bad last time he invited — and only Kami could know why — her to work for him.

Sesshomaru was not sure how both occurrences were connected, but they were somehow. Kagome felt a disturbance near Naraku's grave — the very same he dug himself — and the presence of the _Shikon no Tama_ shards. He himself did not trust Suzuki Onigumo and if he accepted to sponsor his exhibition and show up with his entire family at the Opening Ball it was only because he wanted to be near Rin and certificate she was safe.

He could not think of a better night for Naraku to make an appearance.

"Sesshomaru?"

"Where is Hiraku?" he turned on his heels, facing her openly. Her widened cinnamon eyes had him closing his own for a brief time and breathing deeply through his nose.

He had little time for her insecurities — even if them had been caused by he himself.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Answer me."

They stared at each other in silence. Aware he would not win, no matter how much he tried, he let out a very small information.

"I will send Jaken with A and Un to guard him."

He turned on his heels to leave the room once again, but was stopped in his tracks as she placed her hand over his.

She knew he would not lose his time anymore asking her where Hiraku was — he could easily get that with InuYasha —, but she could not help but feel slightly afraid at the seriousness she rarely saw these days in his orbs.

Everything was just a game to Sesshomaru — he conquered people and closed deals with the same easy anyone could steal a candy from a child; he treated her before the same way —, if he was suddenly serious, it was because it was a rather urgent matter that demanded some ponderosity on his part.

"I demand an explanation."

It was quite easy for him to break her hold onto him and put some distance between them.

"I will see you later."

 **#**

Rin have always thought that being stuck between him and the wall — or any other furniture, if she considered the chair in his office — was the worst sensation in the world, till the found herself in his arms, in the middle of the Ballroom, in a slow and tantalizing waltz.

Why waltz demanded so much skin-ship? Such dance should be immoral — except that it was, it is, back in the 19th century.

Even though he did not attempt any kind of proximity in his house and in the limousine that drove the entire Takahashi Family to the Opening Ball, his first action after he dragged her to compliment everyone he deemed fit was to lock her in his arms in that damned dance.

And after Suzuki Onigumo opened the private exhibition to his ridiculously wealthy guests, of course. Instead of the Onigumo House — and she never thought how cocky it looked to give a birth name only to any foundation —, the Takahashi Family paid the luxurious Palace Hotel Tokyo, Yamabuki Room for the Opening Ball. Although it could house almost 700 guests, the exhibition was very small and no more than 70 people attended of the less than 100 invited.

There was the exhibition of the _Sengoku Jidai_ items and paintings. Onigumo mentioned how grateful he was for having the Takahashi Family sponsoring him and how sad he was for not convincing Sesshomaru to let him display his Bakusaiga, Tenseiga e Tokjin. People would surely fall in love with those powerful, important pieces.

And later, both Onigumo and Alexander Akkerman signed the agreement between the Onigumo House and the _Van Gogh Museum._ Akkerman mentioned he may have a bit more of lucky convincing Sesshomaru — he was the one to present the demon to Rin, after all.

The commentary had her blushing from head to toe and she could only be grateful he said it only for the four of them to hear. Sesshomaru replied to none of them. He seemed… Too much quiet, more than he usually was.

He did not let go of her for not even a second. It seemed as if he was keen on making sure he did not let her leave his sight.

After that, the music flowed in the dance floor and he dragged her along with him.

Rin even tried to distract herself from the searing sensation his strong body, so close to hers, evoked. And she failed miserably each time. He was silent, but his golden eyes so focused on hers, gave her little, close to none, room to daydreams.

She wanted to look around her, to look at another person, to the pilasters around the ballroom, but she knew that she would be stared by other people. By women who were obviously jealous she — a nobody — was in the arms of the Businessman of the Year. Worse: she would meet Kagome's — and InuYasha's — eyes focused on them.

Gulping, she shifted her attention back to Sesshomaru, irritation running in her veins at the glint she found in his golden orbs; the subtle tilt in his lips indicated diabolical amusement from his part.

"I thought you hated dancing," she let out when he averted his attention to a point above her head.

In the past, it took her quite a long time to convince him to leave his chair and join her in the dance floor. She managed to get him to dance with her once or twice. It was shocking that he, the man who hated Balls, would take her to dance first.

 _Hn_ was all he let out, his golden eyes still focused on the point above her head. She even tried to shift her attention and follow his eyes, however, he brought her closer — dangerously closer. Her rosy lips rasped against the white fabric of his tuxedo, staining it.

He did not seem to care though.

"I do." His deep voice made her raise her head and stare at him, surprise in her eyes at his next words, "But I shall make an exception for you."

" _Hn,"_ she copied him, thoroughly mortified for repeating whatever could be related to him or his horrible habits.

For the first time that night, Sesshomaru felt the commissure of his lips genuinely lifting in the hint of a smirk.

 **#**

Opportunity.

He could resume the world to opportunities. Sometimes they knocked on one's door, sometimes it was necessary to create them. No matter the situation, Sesshomaru was smart enough not to throw them away.

As soon as he spotted Suzuki Onigumo in the company of his father, stepmother and sister-in-law — InuYasha long gone to investigate his whereabouts with the excuse of getting Kagome a pair of flat shoes; pregnancy indeed took a tool on her —, he knew he had to get Rin away from him. And what a better opportunity than getting her to dance?

Yes.

Rin was right, he did not like dancing. Rather: he hated it. It was not only about the undesired proximity with humans or demons that only wanted whatever he could offer them. It was all about power. Dance was a kind of political strategy, probably one of the most effective.

"You look gorgeous," he complimented, his fingers sliding on the small of her back to bring her closer.

She did not reply and instead of looking at his eyes. She directed her attention elsewhere. It gave Sesshomaru enough time to roam her figure. He was not a fan of Izayoi, but he could not say the woman had bad taste. On the contrary. The _Amarni Privé_ one-shoulder gown she chose for Rin was silver and encrusted with _Swarovski_ crystals hugged her in all the right places, making her look like the goddess he knew her to be.

Rin sighed as if tired of everything — of him and his sudden change of humor — and shook her head. A raven lock falling from the intricate and elegant hairdo Izayoi had her private hairdresser making.

Faster than he expected, and to her utter relief — she was still mad he did not tell what was happening and everyone in his family seemed to agree with his choice, or at least respect it — the music came to an end. She stepped away from him, but he held her in place.

"I never said you could leave."

Rin bit the inside of her cheeks, controlling whatever she may come to say. She knew that if she were too harsh, it would only attract more attention to them. She considered her options: she could either stay for one more dance or argue with him.

She ended up with both.

"Aren't you concerned about your reputation? You're dancing with a _human_ after all."

Sesshomaru stared at her for a moment as if her question was the stupidest he had ever heard in his entire life. He set his lips into a straight line, slightly annoyed at her pejorative use of the word human.

"I am an inu daiyokai, Rin," he replied. "Whatever I do, wherever I go, people will talk about me." His voice was harsh and devoid of any emotion.

He hated humans more than he hated dancing.

He always did.

She knew it. Rather: she knew she was the exception.

 _His exception._

She knew it. She had always known. Why did she have to throw in his face that he hated humans as if it applied to her as well?

If he were to be honest, Sesshomaru would admit she had plenty reasons to feel the way she did. That very morning and afternoon only added to them. Uncountable reasons to be afraid and want to stay as far away as possible. He knew he had given her all the reasons in the world not to come back to his arms — that was what he wanted at first — actually, he could barely understand why he wanted her back now.

But the idea of Rin afraid of him and eager to leave the country made him terribly angry. The mere thought of Rin returning to Holland — the place they shared so much in two years — and living happily with another man made him lose his temper.

And Sesshomaru hated losing control.

He looked ahead again, his golden eyes narrowing as he did not spot Onigumo with his family any longer. Instead, he was in the middle of the Ballroom, dancing with Izayoi. His father was in the table with Kagome, keeping an eye on them. InuYasha was still gone.

"I won't say yes." Her voice, so low and firm, made him shift his attention back to her and stare at her in silence. "I can't say yes... Ally you want is to use me, because you think I am your property."

His lips were set into a straight line.

"I never said you were."

"You don't have to..." Her voice came out as a whisper. "I could never live with a man who hates me..." She gulped. "You hate what I am."

"Rin, I..."

Sesshomaru did not have enough time to come up with an answer — and he did want to respond —, for his ex-fiancée was smirking in front of him. Eyes narrowed, his hold tightened around Rin's waist as he pulled her closer, as if he could protect her from the demoness.

"Kagura."

 **#**

As soon as she saw the pair of ruby eyes focused on Sesshomaru, she realized that was her chance. If she wanted to escape, it had to be now. To her utter happiness, the music came to an end, forcing everyone in the Ballroom stop dancing.

With a light nod, acknowledging the woman, she bid farewell to the demon and left them alone.

He did not try to stop her, which made her let out a deep and relieved breath.

In a few steps, she reached the table she was sharing with the Takahashi Family, in which she met Kagome — an eyebrow arched at her subtle rush.

"Don't ask for explanations, I'm not giving you any." She breathed again and fetched her hand purse. "I just want to leave."

"I didn't say anything." Kagome shrugged. "Want a ride? I was thinking about going back home. My feet are killing me."

Rin shook her head.

"I thought InuYasha went to retrieve you flats."

"Eeerrr…" Kagome bit down her bottom lip. "Kind of?"

Rin narrowed her eyes.

"What are you all hiding from me?" She took Kagome by the wrist and helped her to her feet. "First Sesshomaru and his _don't leave my side_ , then the silence in the limousine. Something smells very fishy, Kagome and you're telling me what it is!"

She turned on her heels to head to the lady's room, when she spotted Sesshomaru dancing with his ex-fiancée. He stared at her intensely while she smiled happily. Too much happy for someone in her situation.

It made a creepy shiver run down her spine.

"Bathroom now. With me."

Before they could move an inch, Kagome saw Onigumo approaching and placed her expensive _Chanel Diamond Forever_ handbag on Rin's hands.

"Suzuki-dono." She smiled sweetly and she hated herself for that. "I would love to dance."

Onigumo stared at her suspiciously. Rin shrugged. She was the one in the dark. She had no idea what was happening. And no one seemed on verge of telling her not even a bit.

"Would you deny a pregnant woman?"

He shook his head, ever the polite gentleman, and outstretched his hand for her to take.

A sigh left Rin's lips as she was left alone in the table and watch as the couples danced to the slow music in the dance floor.

However, she was glad. She had to think — needed so — and she would never manage to do that with them around her. Even if Kagome remained in silence — for she would most likely deny the answers she sought — she had to be alone.

She was out of luck though, for InuYasha returned in the same moment, his golden eyes trained on Kagome as she danced with Onigumo.

He, too, seemed out of character that day. At least on the limousine. They were keeping secrets, that much she knew. The entire family had something going on and did not include her on it — the idea made her gasp. She was _not_ a part of their family and she did not intend to be.

Rin shook her head and took advantage everyone was too lost in thoughts to leave — InuYasha barely registered the fact she was leaving — when her mobile phone vibrated, indicating a new message had arrived.

Brow furrowed, she opened it and found a single link she did not feel like opening — it could very well be a virus. But as gasps filled the Ballroom and everyone stared intensely at her, whispers falling from their mouths, she had to click on the link, unaware the shock of her life waited her.

It redirected to a tabloid in which read,

 **BREAKING! CEO OF THE TAKAHASHI CO RUMORED TO HAVE HAD A SON OUTSIDE WEDLOCK.**

In the body of the news, there was a rather sensationalist picture of her holding Hiraku in her arms and at the left side, there was a photograph of Sesshomaru, Hiraku and her in the mall that Saturday afternoon, almost a month ago.

To say her already big eyes widened to the size of saucers would be the understatement of the century.

She looked at Sesshomaru, and the light in his usually emotionless golden orbs made her gasp. The woman closer to him kind of smiled — she was too shocked to interpret right now what the glint in her ruby eyes meant — what the tilt of her ruby lips meant.

Looking down, she pressed her mobile phone between her hands and dashed to the double doors that divided the Ballroom from the elevator hall. She knew he was at her trail. At least, he would be soon.

As soon as the lift doors closed after herself, Rin let out a deep and heavy breath escape her lips before she noticed she was not alone. A photographer — supposedly unaware of the news everyone in the Ballroom now knew of and gossiped about — stared at her and bowed his head dutifully. She straightened her back and held her handbag a bit forcefully. Out of respect, she mimicked his gesture and stared at the mirrored surface in the lift with baited breath.

Pregnant silence filled the atmosphere so completely and uncomfortably, Rin could not help but stare at the electronic panel in utter despair. She needed to get to the ground floor as soon as possible, but it seemed she was in the slowest elevator in the world.

When the doors sprung open, she did not lose time to run to the hall — she would run, if it would not make her look like a fool and a tad suspicious. Photographers were curious by nature — they were paid to be so — and the last thing she wished right now was to star the newspapers or online articles as a meme, for she would certainly fall flat on the floor.

Her mobile phone vibrated, indicating an income call. She did not have to look at it to know whom was calling her. Again. She lifted the hem of her dress and walked faster, when she was suddenly pulled by someone. Startled, she looked back, but it happened so fast — faster than her human eyes could certainly follow — everything went black for a moment.

She could not scream — and her heart beat so madly she thought it was going to explode inside her ribcage — for her attacker put a hand over her mouth and dragged her to a darkened space behind a huge pillar.

A calm and fresh breath caressed her neck and ear — she would know his breath even in the afterlife — and slowly the big, powerful and clawed hand loosened the hold over her mouth.

"Do not move; do not scream."

 **#**

Sesshomaru hated to see Kagura as a guest in that damned Opening Ball — he knew he should have added to the agreement the part where she should absolutely not be invited, it is, if she ever were. It was not past that crazy bitch to be a gatecrasher.

With no good alternative, for the flashes everywhere blinded him, he took her in his arms for a dance, even if his attention never diverted from Rin. Maybe for a second or two, before Kagura's words.

And to think he almost said… _What?_ What would he say? That he was sorry for having left her in Amsterdam? Would he say she was the only woman in his thoughts, even though he had had plenty before and _after_ her? That she was different?

 _That he loved her?_

He did not love her. He did not love anyone. Love was a foolish human feeling. A pathetic one only the weak felt. Something only oaf like his father and brother felt. He was not made for it. He was not made for something like love… It was just not in his DNA.

Yet... He wanted to marry her. But not for such stupid reasons. This marriage — union — was to secure his property over her. Rin was just that. _A property._ The mother of his son could not remain single. He did not consider himself that traditional, but there were certain traditions he could simply not give up.

Kagura noticed how he stared at the other woman — the one in his arms before — and she could not help but comment, "I have nothing against her… She is a pretty little thing, but she would do some good staying out of my way."

Sesshomaru remained silent. As an indication he had heard her, he slightly sank his claws into her waist. She smirked, ruby eyes shining in a mischievous way, as she moved closer to his face, her lips trailing his jaw maliciously.

He heard a gasp or two, as guest stared at them and commented on how he was back to his ex-fiancée even after she cheated on him. Actually, what was he doing in the Opening Ball of the one who was romantically involved with his ex?

Surely he had more pride than that.

What people quite did not grasp, was that besides probably fake, he was not near interested in what Kagura made of her own life — which male she took to her own bed. He was there for one reason only and it certainly had nothing to do with either Kagura or the beyond suspicious Onigumo.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw InuYasha returning to their table, a knowing look in his golden orbs. He shifted his attention back to the woman in his arms.

"Do not play a game you are bound to lose, Kagura."

"I never lose, Sesshomaru-sama."

He narrowed his eyes. She was never one into adding the honorific after his name and when she did, he knew she was up to no good.

"Do not test me."

She laughed and lowered her head, shaking it slightly. When she stared back at him again, she did not lose time to press her ruby lips against his in a very subtle — even if sensual — way. Her trained eyes saw a photographer capturing the moment through his camera.

A smirk tilted the sides of her mouth.

"I wouldn't dare, Sesshomaru-sama." She looked back at the woman he was dancing with before. "I just wanted to show you how tricky using the media can be. A double-edged sword, really."

Before she could let go of him, their mobile phones vibrated. Not only theirs, but everyone else in that Ball. He would have ignored that, if not for the commotion it seemed to have caused.

Holding Kagura with one hand, he even thought about retrieving his own Samsung S7, however, it was not needed as his sharp hearing caught the whispers echoing in the Ballroom.

 _He does have a son!_

 _For Kami-sama's sake! She is the mother of his son!_

 _Doesn't he hate humans? How come he has a hanyo for an heir?_

 _A son out of wedlock? What a whore!_

Sesshomaru let go of Kagura and looked for Rin, but realized she was gone. A low growl emerged in his chest as he disappeared from the Ballroom even before Suzuki Onigumo and Alexander Akkerman could reach him.

He walked past one of the photographers who were taking pictures of Rin, smashing it with his bare hands — his sharp claws. He cared very little if his action was recorded by another or that the guests watched everything in pure astonishment.

For now, his mind was filled with one person only.

 **#**

"Sesshomaru!" she breathed out in his hand.

"Do not move; do not scream."

Slowly, very slowly, he removed his hand from her mouth, even if he still held her close to his body; his breath still caressing her neck and ear.

She shivered.

However, contrary from all their other encounters, he did not seem keen on teasing her. She saw a pair of paparazzi passing by them in the hall of the grandiose Palace Hotel Tokyo.

Another shiver run up her spine, this time for very different reasons. As they disappeared into a corner, she felt Sesshomaru slowly moving apart from her. Whispers echoed in the empty hall as two members of the staff passed by looking at their mobile phones and laughing at her.

At her and at her son.

 _I bet the child is not even his._

 _Pregnancy trick is the oldest in the book! I hope Sesshomaru-sama doesn't believe her!_

Her eyes widened to the size of saucers as she recalled why she left the Ballroom so abruptly and how her night turned into an already bad one to a real nightmare.

As the two employees passed by them — unable to spot them in the darkened corner Sesshomaru dragged her —, Rin turned to face him and before she could control herself, a rather loud slap echoed in the empty hall.

"I hate you!"

She hit his chest a couple of times, barely managing to make him step backwards.

"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"

He tightened his jaw, but said nothing as she continued to hit him aimlessly. The strong smell of tears — by either frustration or sadness, he could not pinpoint at this point — hit his nose strongly than her small, powerless fists.

All Rin wanted right now was for him to apologize. To say he had nothing to do with that horrible news spread on the internet. To say he was innocent. But he did nothing. He remained silent.

It was a low, despicable blow, even for him. She could not believe he would go to such lengths only to have her saying yes to that damned marriage. At least, the Sesshomaru from her past would never do such a thing, but nowadays… Who knew?

Angry at his sudden silent treatment, she went for another slap. This time, however, he held her wrist and pulled her into his arms, holding her ever so tightly.

"Enough."

"Let go of me!"

She sniffed into his white dress shirt. The pain in her heart unbearable. It was not at all related to bad words tainting her image. She was used to be stared at wherever she went, wherever she did. But Rin could not bear the thought of having the same harsh treated bestowed upon her son.

 _I bet the child is not even his._

Only the Gods knew what she would if to make it true. However, she knew she could not. Hiraku was his. He was his son as much as he was hers.

"Tell you didn't do this."

As an answer, he merely tightened his hold on her, placing his head on the top of hers. He wanted to say he did not do it — because he did not; he could not —, but he knew had he treated Kagura a little better — had he been careful, it would not happen. Ever.

It was much his fault.

He was beyond guilty.

Sesshomaru would kill her.

Slowly and painful. That was the kind of death he would bestow upon her for ever messing with _his_ family. With _his_ Rin.

"Let me go, Sesshomaru," she whispered into his chest, all too weak to put up a fight.

Her plane back to Amsterdam was scheduled for two days from now. But she realized that after that mess of a night, all she could do right now was to get Hiraku on Kikyo's house and leave right now. It did not matter the luggage, all the owned. Right now, she just had to leave that place. That country.

"Let me go!" She was firmer, stepping backwards. "I'll leave and you'll never hear from me again."

"Do not ever run away from he again," he growled low; his golden eyes thoroughly focused on her. His back straightened as he heard light steps echoing on the hall.

"Kagura…" His growl became menacing. He stepped forward, with Rin behind him as if shielding her from the demoness.

"Sesshomaru..." She all but whispered. The mischievous glint that usually lit her eyes gone. Her ruby gems were dull. As if devoid of life. She looked confused. Pained. "Onigumo is—

He walked to her, golden orbs turning red by the second. His ears twitched slightly as he heard his father and InuYasha and their mates approaching, but he did not give a damn. That was the very moment he would kill her — and he could care less what Rin and anyone of his family would say.

Flexing his claws, he was ready to strike when a macabre laugh made him and everyone else stop on their tracks. He looked around, searching for the source of the sound, only to find Suzuki Onigumo behind Kagura. Left hand over her nude shoulder and the other coming out of her chest.

A gasp left both Kagura and Rin. He could swear her cinnamon eyes were widened beyond belief. He could hear InuYasha cursing as well.

The _Oscar de la Renta Silver Pleated Lamé_ gown she wore became red by the second. As red as her eyes and — already growing discolored — lips. She fell to the floor, landing on her knees, too weak to remain on her feet.

" _Sessho…maru…"_

The laugh got harder and louder as the poisonous miasma spread in the air. Sesshomaru went for the kill — not at all concerned with his ex-fiancée dying before his eyes, blood spluttering from her mouth and staining the marbled floor; his father already by her side —, but stopped on his tracks as soon as realized the reason why Kagura was killed in cold blood.

His eyes widened slightly for a second as he glanced back at Rin over his shoulder. InuYasha was in front of her, shielding the three of them — his own mother, Kagome and Rin, his arms securely around Kagome as she struggled to purify the atmosphere around them.

Faster than a lightning, he stood tall before Rin, holding her wrist and pulling her into his embrace. The mighty figure of Onigumo — now he knew him to be Naraku all along — tried to snatch her away from him.

Sesshomaru growled.

He did not see.

He did not think.

With another warning growl, he lost no time to sink his fangs on the junction of Rin's neck and shoulder, drawing blood.

"Oh my!" Izayoi let out, beside InuTaisho, a hand covering her mouth. Her interjection could be both because of Sesshomaru's unexpected act and also because Kagome fainted in InuYasha's arms. The use of her spiritual powers taking a tool on her very pregnant self.

Rin could not think.

Rin could not see.

Rin could not feel.

She sank her own nails on Sesshomaru's arms as the pain became unbearable and everything went black.

On his side, Naraku's eyes widened ever so slightly before realization sank on him. He scoffed.

 _Clever Sesshomaru._

"Even if you mark her…" He started, red eyes shining with mischief. "I win."

His laugh was heard one last time, before he disappeared in the poisonous miasma.

"I won."

* * *

 **A/N – Oh my! What will Rin say when she wakes up? xD**

 **I hope you have enjoyed this chapter. I know it feels rushed, but stay with me and next chapter shall explain all of your doubts. We're going to have another and lengthy trip to the Department of Backstory ^^ I just had to move on with the plot.**

 **And is Kagura dead? Naraku at least is alive, or so it seems xD Place your bets and tell me what you think! Personally, I'm a big fan of Kagura — and although I don't ship her with Sesshomaru, I'm not against the ship — in the canon series, so she'll play a huge part in this story that's not at all connected with destroying Sesshomaru x Rin relationship. Actually, as I always say in my stories, my main characters can do it fairly well themselves. They don't need a hand xD**

 **As for Hiraku… Well… Poor boy xD In the end, he'll be the most hurt with this ridiculous news on the internet. Whenever I read gossip about famous people I always wonder how their relatives (and also themselves) feel with the whole thing going on. I could never be famous, I'd be Britney Spears 2007 version all the time. You've to be mentally strong to endure all of that and I simply value my privacy a great deal.**

 **This weekend I shall update the final chapter of Mating Policies. Sorry for the wait xD**

 **My biggest thanks to everyone who have added this story to your favorites/to your follows and have reviewed last chapter. Your words mean a lot to me. Not gonna mention you because I'm too tired, but you know who you are and I love you from the bottom of my heart.**

 **Now, would you mind leaving me a few words? I'd love to read your thoughts xD**

 **Take care,**

 **Velvetsins.**


	5. V – We can't all be Merida

**Hi xD**

 **After almost three months (close) I am back to update this fic. I can't even being to apologize for my lateness and I just hope I can make it up for the long wait with this extra-long chapter.**

 **We have the appearance of a character I love very, very much. I hope you like her in this fic too xD She is by far my favorite character to work with in the entire InuYasha universe.**

 **My biggest thanks to each one of you who favorited, added the fic to the followers and left me a review. I know last chapter was not a favorite to everyone, but I appreciate every tip and every criticism, they make me grow as a person and as a writer. This chapter, sadly, does little to solve the mystery as I decided to focus on Rin, Sesshomaru and Hiraku's feeling in the outcome of this. Hope you like it.**

 **I've just finished this chapter, so you know… I didn't like the earlier version of it, so I changed a lot and I've just finished typing the last sentences… so…**

 **Disclaimer: Takahashi owns InuYasha, I own this plot and the OCs. All brands and places here mentioned are real and I don't own them.**

 **Warning: OOCness.**

 **Happy reading!**

* * *

 _PS I'm (still not) over you_

 **V – We can't all be Merida**

* * *

Heavy, tired and groggy cinnamon eyes fluttered open in the darkened room. Rin's first reaction was to touch the junction of her neck and shoulder in search of two punctures.

A relieved sigh left her lips as she found none.

 _Thanks God!_

Wait!

Did it mean that all that happened last night in the Opening Ball — the astonishing revelation of Sesshomaru being a father in the internet, her boss' weird demeanor, more like an attack,and Sesshomaru biting into her flesh and tearing it open — did not happen in the first place?

Another relieved sigh left her lips.

Very much awake now, Rin tried to sit down, but found something quite heavy pressing her down on the mattress. Running her hands through it, she met Hiraku's straight hair and her eyes instantly softened.

"My baby boy…" she whispered to herself as she caressed his fluffy ear and earned a dissatisfied, tiny growl in response. He did not wake up though.

She muffled a giggle — even asleep he was against anyone touching his ears — and instantly regretted it. Her head hurt, but she would not dare to move even an inch away. Not when Hiraku rested his head against her chest and had a strand of raven hair inside his chubby left fist.

With another sigh, Rin closed her eyes and lured herself to sleep, unaware of the pair of golden eyes watching their interaction intensely in that very room.

When she woke up again, it was a bright new day and there was no sign of Hiraku anywhere. She quickly noticed that that was not the only difference — he was an early riser after all —, but the room in which she was in was greatly different from her small chamber in her apartment. Instead, it was huge, _huge and luxurious._

Dread filled her as she thought about being in Sesshomaru's penthouse. However, as she paid close attention to her surroundings, she came to the quick realization there was _fusuma_ and _sh_ _ō_ _ji_ doors everywhere.

She sighed in utter relief. Not that being in his parent's house was that comforting, but at least she was not with him — in his domain. She sat down on the mattress, feeling something wet on her toes. When she looked down, she was faced with yellowish yes.

A cry of utter delight left her lips as she realized it was none other than Un, Sesshomaru's pet dragon.

Not exactly in the form of a dragon. Actually, she had only seen him once in his original body. He was usually either disguised as human — twin humans, A and Un — or dogs. This time, he was a huge, guardian dog.

How many years had passed since she last laid eyes on him? Eight? Something around that, she was sure.

She moved to pet his thick fur when a burning sensation made her stop dead and shift her attention to her neck.

This time, when Rin raised her left hand and ran her fingertips over the junction of her neck and shoulder, she found the two punctures she looked for earlier.

A small cry of frustration escaped her lips.

So, it was not a dream.

Sesshomaru really bit her. He really did it.

 _She would kill him._

 **#**

A low growl left Sesshomaru's lips as his father threw a stack of newspaper on his face. As if he did not have enough to worry about — an angry Rin was not exactly pleasant, an angry Rin because her picture stamped the newspapers their son would read sooner or later was even less pleasant —, InuTaisho invaded his office and demanded an explanation.

He did not have one.

Not the one his father expected at least.

He threw the stack away. There was no need to reread something he knew by heart.

 **SCANDAL! HEIR TO THE TAKAHASHI ENTERPRISES RUMORED TO HAVE A SON OUTSIDE WEDLOCK WITH A HUMAN WOMAN.**

He closed his eyes.

In the _Asashi Shimbun_ it read.

 **BREAKING! TAKAHASHI ENTERPRISES' STOCK FALL DOWN FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS MONTH.**

And as if his family company was classified as not reliable before by the investors and the director board, what could they say now?

"I could demand some explanations, but I don't think it's necessary," InuTaisho said, his voice icy and firm as he stared down at his son. Sesshomaru stared back with the same intensity, no shadow of regret touched his golden eyes. "But I came to warn you about the Press Conference to be held at 3 p.m. In your place, I would apologize at once. It is, if you are capable of guilty at all."

There was no answer from his oldest. He remained in silence, meditating over his father's words. And there it was… The Press Conference he did not want to face when he had Naraku to deal with.

He simply hated to leave that to InuYasha because he had to play businessman for a day.

The demon tightened his jaw. He should have known what was about to happen when he took Kagura in his arms for a dance — when she threw herself at him. She certainly had something in mind that could only end up badly for him.

Articles on the internet, more like fake blog profiles about celebrities, fired against Rin and in favor of Kagura. Some, in the name of the famous feminist sorority, claimed that he was the problem and the women in his life were totally innocent.

 _As if…_ They certainly did not know Kagura.

He could barely wait till he got his claws on her — he would kill her and revive her and kill her all over again. If only Tenseiga could revive someone more than once.

The demon cursed his heirloom. Stupid, useless sword! How he wished he had the powers to revive her as many times as he wished, so he could watch her die painfully one hundred times. No. Better yet: one thousand times.

To watch her die once was not enough.

Sadly, there came the greatest irony of this story. If Naraku wanted her dead, he should — _could only_ — want her alive. She was the key to find the disgusting hanyō again. She was the key to destroy that _damned_ half-breed. And more importantly: she was the key to keep both Rin and his son safe.

He curled his hand into a fist and looked ahead, not bothered in the slightest by the presence of his father still in his office. Later that day, he would pay a visit to Kagura and yank the whole truth from her — from the very beginning: how she joined Naraku and how she had the audacity to expose Rin and Hiraku in that hideous way not even he himself would be capable of.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw InuTaisho approaching him in firm steps and put his clawed hand over his shoulder, squeezing it lightly.

"I did not do it, father."

The words left him without his consent, but he could not bear the thought of his father — the man he looked up to his entire life — thinking he had something to do with those ridiculous news. As much as he wanted Rin to say yes to that damned marriage, he would not go so low as to force her into it by exposing their son.

Even he had better morals than that.

"I know…" he replied with a whisper and walked back to the door. As he looked at his son, his golden eyes still hard, but with a hint of leniency, he said, "…that will be the last time I will warn you, Sesshomaru. You either apologize for all your mistakes and start behaving as the astounding administrator I know you to be, or your position shall be given to your brother."

"Never." The voice that emerged from the demon's chest was deep, almost a roar.

"I depends on you."

 **#**

"He is not just a friend."

The moment she feared the most was right there, before her very eyes.

Rin sucked in a breath, stared at her son with a small hint of a smile — one of the nervous kind — and kissed his forehead lovingly; her fingers running over his silvery bangs. She wished she could trim them at least a little, but she learned quite soon it could not be done. His locks would only grow back at the same time.

She had just entered the room in which a maid pointed out he could be found. He was sitting in a _zabuton_ , a book in his lap and A lying down next to him, eyes closed. To any outsider, it would seem the dog was sleeping, but Rin knew better. When Sesshomaru commanded his dragons to watch over someone, they would rather die than leave the mission unfinished.

The only reason why A did not attack was the fact he knew her. Rin ran her fingers over his ears and he let out a croaked sound of delight. She returned her attention back to her son and sighed.

When Hiraku spoke — when the accusatory words left his lips —, he did not raise his golden eyes to look at her. It made a shiver run down her spine. She sat on her heels and wondered if he saw something on the internet or if anyone said anything at all. She did not doubt that was the case.

Honestly, she did not want to have that conversation right now, but if it came to it, then she thought she had not much of a choice.

"Mom."

"He was a friend." She bit her bottom lip. "He is a friend, but he wants to be more than friends. I don't."

That was not the most accurate version, but that would do. _For now._

Her eyes went wide when he moved from his _zabuton_ and approached her. To any outsider, it would seem he was up for a hug, or any form of physical contact.

Rin knew better.

However, she did not stop him when he sniffed the air around her — _sniffed_ _her;_ she simply hated those dog traits — and removed her long from his way. Subconsciously, her hand shot to her bandaged neck.

"He hurt you…" His childish voice was full of anger when he spoke.

Apart from the discomfort of being bitten in such rough way, Rin felt a strong headache coming her way.

How was she supposed to explain that to her son?

"I am fine?"

That sounded more like a question than an assertion to her own ears. And if Hiraku were unable to catch the trembling intonation of her voice, he could surely smell her lie.

She sighed.

"I am fine. He didn't hurt me… Much," she offered at least. "Look, I did want it."

And it was getting utterly ridiculous. How could she want nothing more than friendship from him if she let him mark her as only mates did? Granted, it was a temporary mark — she was not much acquainted with _inuyokais_ anymore, but she could differentiate a temporary from a permanent mark and she was very much aware what both meant.

"And he is just a friend?"

"Look, Hiraku…" She sighed. How was she supposed to explain what happened yesterday to her son? What was she supposed to say when she did not even understand why Sesshomaru did it in the first place? "It's more complex than it seems."

It was the most she could say. She did not have anymore in her to tell him the entire truth. Besides that, what could she possibly say? Rin knew it would mean she would have to finally open her heart and explain why she never told him he had a living father and why they were not together.

She was not sure she was ready to give him all the answers.

Hiraku would judge her and she was ready to be judged by all but her own son.

Sesshomaru may have abandoned her — she did not even believe this version anymore —, but if she really wanted to tell him the news, she could have contacted Kagome and told her she was pregnant. Her friend would certainly not mind giving the news in her place.

On the contrary, she would be happy to have a nephew.

"I hate him."

She could very much agree with him and say she hated Sesshomaru too, but it hurt her to see her son harboring such extreme feelings towards his own father.

And there it was… She would have to say Sesshomaru was his father. If he did not have it figured out by now.

She let out another heavy sigh.

Could this day get any worse?

"Hiraku, I am hungry… You have school to go. Can we talk about this later?"

"But mom…"

"What did I say about _but mom_?"

There was silence between them for a moment as Hiraku closed his book and stared at her with accusatory eyes. She knew he was complying for the moment, but as soon as the day was over, she would have to answer to all of his questions, no matter how difficult they may have been.

Well, she would just have to use the rest of the day in her favor.

 **#**

Sesshomaru hated Press Conferences with every fiber of his being. And honestly, there was a bunch of things he hated dearly. To find something to top all of the others did not seem an accomplishable task before.

It seemed now.

He answered to all of their questions.

There was not even a single one of them that went unanswered. It is, till one of the odious journalists thought they could ask about his upcoming plans concerning his relationship with Rin.

Thousands of questions of the same nature sprung to life. Each bolder than the previous. Declaring the Conference finished, Sesshomaru left the Auditorium with calm and decisive steps; his path down the hallways of the Takahashi Enterprises to the outside world was followed by security guards and meddlesome tabloid reporters who had not been invited to the Press Conference.

He did not know what came over him, but he found himself once again smashing a camera with his bare hands when he found a petite reporter announcing his wedding to Ueno Rin in the upcoming days — a human woman who could not even be telling the truth about Hiraku being his son.

No word left his lips as he walked past her pale figure. Her entire being shook with fear and her hands tightened considerably around the microphone. He barely registered the fact his father was staring back at him with a shake of head. The older Takahashi opened the door of his car and waited for him to enter after him.

His mood darkened at the thought of his almighty and so correct — _as if_ , the only difference between him and the so perfect InuTaisho was the fact his deeds never became public, perhaps because at the time there was no _fucking_ Press Conferences to deal with — father rebuking him for protecting the honor of his — _whatever_ Rin was his.

He just wanted that day to end.

Or at least to be spared of the drama to come and go after Kagura — that bitch had much explaining to do. He could barely wait to be in her presence again, something he rarely enjoyed in the past months.

He mused darkly at how ironic life was. When they were together, he could not stand her presence for more than five minutes. Sex with her was not something he looked for either. It could be amazing in the very beginning, but he grew tired of her easily. And now he would rather be with her than with Rin — not that he would be with Rin alone, something he was always very enthusiastic about — and their son, and his father, and his half-brother, and his sister-in-law and lastly, with his mother.

Of course the so perceptive InuKimi was up with the news. If she did not see it in the newspapers or the television, his father had surely contacted her about now. No matter how much they claimed to hate each other and despise the other's company, they never stood apart for too long and if it meant reuniting to chew Sesshomaru's ears off, they would gladly stand each other for weeks if needed.

And there it was. He probably hated his parents more than he hated Press Conferences.

 **#**

Considering the big fuss on the internet, Rin was relived to find the path to school clear and not even a single soul interrupted them. That, or the fact they were in an armored SUV in the company of a very grumpy toad that did not have to seem a better opinion of her nowadays than he did in the last decade. She rolled her eyes as Jaken called her a ungrateful wench for not recognizing how much his _oh-so-perfect_ Lord cared for her, after all he disposed of his company — if only he knew Sesshomaru would gladly take any opportunity to get rid of him and his horrible presence — and of his two headed dragon for her.

As if she had asked for it in the first place.

As if they were not in this situation because of him.

He only stopped talking when Hiraku hit his forehead with two gravels. Even if Rin reprimanded him for such action — he should absolutely not do that to anyone, it was disrespectful, and he should know better —, she could not help, but look away and bit back the urge to laugh.

She had seen Sesshomaru do that once or twice to the toad and the outcome was always hilarious — and welcomed too, if she were to be honest. At least, Jaken stopped talking and left her alone.

They were close to school, she recognized the Avenue they were now. Honestly, she was relieved to find out Izayoi and InuTaisho agreed with her. Hiraku should go to school. They should act normally. There was no reason for panic. If the situation was any dangerous, it was obvious InuTaisho — and part of her wanted to believe Sesshomaru agreed with him — would not allow them to leave the safety of his manor.

And honestly, they were not even certain she was a target. What Sesshomaru did was completely unnecessary. _That_ put a big and red target on her forehead.

Oh, how she hated him.

Izayoi, on the other hand — Kagome too, what both surprised and disappointed her, she expected more of her feminist friend —, seemed to agree with him. The temporary mark was the best solution. _For now._

If it depended on Rin, she would have that removed from her body as soon as possible.

Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt when the car stopped and Un opened the door for Hiraku to leave. Just for safety, he would stay in the surroundings, watching for any disturbances. Sadly, Jaken would return with her.

"Have a great day, my love."

She planted a soft kiss to Hiraku's cheek and saw him off. At the same time, her mobile phone rang.

" _I apologize for any intrusion, Rin-san, but I am afraid my husband and Sesshomaru-san would like to have a word."_ Her voice was so sweet she could almost feel her smile through the line. _"Are you coming back?"_

She felt her stomach cool down a little. There was no alternative reality in which she would want to share a room with Sesshomaru as long as he was alive, but she thought she could not escape it forever.

Hiraku's frown deepened as he thought about his mother talking to the _mister-I-want-to-be-more-than-friends_ , but he said nothing. He knew how mad she would be if he said anything right now. And as much as he did not want his mother near that man, he knew he could do nothing to stop it from happening.

Pretend a strong headache or stomach ache was not only bellow him — he was smarter than that —, but he knew his mother would not buy it. She knew him better than anyone. Resigned, he followed his home teacher inside and not even waved his mother goodbye.

"It's okay, Izayoi-sama. I will be back shortly."

 _We have much to talk about,_ she thought, resisting the urge to touch her neck. Sesshomaru had much explaining to do, after all.

Blowing a kiss to Hiraku's retreating form, she watched as Jaken closed the door and A drove back to the Takahashi manor.

It would be indeed a long day.

 **#**

Her heart was thundering in her chest when she disembarked from the car and followed Izayoi through the manor. Just like last time, she did not have enough time to appreciate the _engawa_ nor the fully blossomed cherry tree.

Head hung low, she followed the older woman in quiet and resigned steps. It did not take them more than a few turns and less than a few minutes — which in Rin's mind seemed to have passed a couple of hours — for them to reach the small room in which the Lord of the house expected her.

Sesshomaru was sitting with his back to the entrance, _to her_ , and he never seemed so straight before. Even in his _seiza_ position, he seemed impossibly tall. She could not see his face, but basing solely on his body language, she could say he was quite displeased. _Angry_ even.

InuTaisho nodded at her and later flashed a sweet smile to his wife right before she closed the _sh_ _ō_ _ji_ doors and left them alone. Sesshomaru, on the other hand, did not gave her the courtesy of a look as she took a seat in the _zabuton_ next to his.

Not that she expected much of him.

Biting her bottom lip, she got ready for the rebuke of her life, which… did not come. She cast a look at Sesshomaru, but he did not meet her halfway. He was silent, as if in deep meditation — as if getting ready for what was to come.

It made Rin narrow her cinnamon eyes.

What the hell was happening?

InuTaisho turned on the television. And the image that assaulted her vision made Rin's blood boil. Angrily, she dug her nails to her thighs and turned to Sesshomaru.

"What the hell?"

 **#**

In the spare room in the traditional Takahashi manor in Minami-Azabu, one of Tokyo's noblest neighborhood, Sesshomaru and Rin sat side by side, in front of the head of the Takahashi family that showed them for the fourth time the recording from a sensationalist channel in which Hiraku was on the spotlight.

In bold letters it read:

 **BREAKING!** **HEIR TO THE TAKAHASHI ENTERPRISES, TAKAHASHI SESSHOMARU, TO MARRY THE MOTHER OF HIS SON, UENO RIN.**

The screen was divided in two scenes: in the left side, there was a very frightened Hiraku in the company of InuYasha, Kagome and a couple of security officers — including Un in his humanoid form — and avid reporters in front of his school. In the right side there was Sesshomaru and Rin dancing in the Opening Ball last night.

By her side, the _inu daiyokai_ closed his fist firmly. He hated that scrutiny. He hated how the media thought they could pursue everything and everyone without thinking of the consequences. He simply hated that they thought they could scrimp his family without paying for it.

He hated with passion his father's action. Instead of letting them go to Hiraku's rescue, they were forced to go to the main headquarters of the Takahashi family. He despised the idea of InuYasha, who was no more than his uncle, had to play hero. He recognized, however, that maybe — just maybe — it was for the best. If he showed up with Rin at the school the scandal would be much worse. Right now, InuYasha was best suited to deal with the situation. And the public loved him — something that could not be told about him.

"You will be interviewed by Vanity Fair," InuTaisho stated as he turned off the television.

"But…" Rin swallowed, bit her bottom lip and tried to moisten them. She did not know what to say, she just knew she could not agree with that interview. It would be the end for her. _For Hiraku._ "Forgive me, InuTaisho-sama, but I…"

"Rin..." Sesshomaru whispered out her name. It was useless. No sensible argument would make his father change his mind. He knew that for a fact.

"My grandson will not be affected by your childish decisions."

"It was not my decision," she contested; her face very much flushed with anger. "I never said I would marry him."

There was a moment of silence. Her hands, closed into tight fists, were over her thighs in the uncomfortable position she found herself into. She spent so many years away, she almost forgot how much she hated _seiza_ position.

She cast a glance at Sesshomaru, but he remained unmoving like a statue.

How she hated him.

How she hated herself for coming back.

For ever thinking she could come back and remain unscathed.

That Hiraku could ever have a happy live in that hateful country.

She hated everything about Japan — and mainly the Takahashi family.

"Neither did he."

Rin found herself gaping and staring at InuTaisho with wide eyes.

"It was not his fault."

 _Of course it was his fault._

She was quick — very quick — to accuse. To point fingers at him and to let go of her anger. She never thought she could hate him so much. But she did. And she would do everything to be waxing gibbous moon already, so she could yank his eyes from his face with her bare hands.

With her powerful claws.

Rin never wanted to be a demoness so much.

"You two will marry," InuTaisho announced in a voice that gave both of them no room for further discussion. "It does not matter if you will divorce in a year or two, but you will marry."

"You have no objections?" she asked, but Sesshomaru remained in silence. It was as if he knew it all along. As if he expected such decision, which, considering all alternatives, could be pretty much the case.

How she wanted to kill him right now.

"I refuse."

Her answer made both demons stare at her for a moment. Sesshomaru did not change his expression — in fact, it would seem he had schooled himself to look nonchalant from the very moment she stepped into that damned room — and InuTaisho seemed rather bored for a moment.

He expected her to say that all along.

So it was no surprise when the next words left his lips — and even though, she could only stare at him agape and gasp.

"Then you leave me little choice but to contact my lawyers and petition Hiraku's custody."

Rin closed her eyes.

There it was.

The words she expected to hear from Sesshomaru coming from his father's very lips.

She wanted to object. She wanted to say he was wrong. She was the mother, after all and if judges had to choose between a fitting mother — she may have done a bunch of wrong choices throughout her life, but no one could ever say she was an unfit mother — and the grandfather, the answer was very obvious, but she was not talking about just any grandfather. That man was Takahashi InuTaisho, probably the most powerful man of the entire Japan — if not the entire Asia.

"And neither of you will be allowed to see him until I deem otherwise."

No judge would go against his wishes. Not if they wanted to remain in their position.

"Your petty bickering has done enough damage already."

"But I…" she started, but closed her mouth at the same moment. It was useless arguing. InuTaisho was right. The only one to be harmed by that whole story would be Hiraku. The harassment would not stop now that it had started. "Hiraku won't accept it," she murmured quietly.

Yes.

She knew her son would do the impossible to prevent that marriage from taking place. And _impossible_ could imply in weeks without Hiraku even casting a glance at Rin. Perhaps he would never talk to her anymore. The mere idea made her heart sore and little.

Rin could not breathe.

She wanted to kill Sesshomaru. At least spank him to the point there would be no consciousness left in him. The sudden anger and the hateful feelings frightened her, but she could not suppress them. She only knew that, at the moment, she hated him with all her being.

"It's for the best, Rin-san…" InuTaisho said, rising from his _zabuton_. "And even if you may decide for a divorce in the near future…" It did not go unnoticed by him the reproachful look his eldest son gave him. "At the present moment, that is the best solution."

As she did not reply, he smiled kindly at him — or as kindly as a monster who had just suggested to take her son from her could manage.

"You don't have to give your answer right away. Except for the interview of course."

 _Except for the fact that you have no choice, of course._ She wanted to say, but venomous words had never been in her. She would never hurt anyone so carelessly. She would never hurt anyone. Period.

It was not in her nature.

Perhaps that's why she was the only who got hurt in the end.

She wore her heart in a sleeve, Lady Kaede, the old woman who had raised her as if she were her own daughter, once said. It was a good thing, according to her. To Rin, it was a disgrace.

If the years taught her something, is that people who _wore their fucking hearts in a sleeve_ always got them shattered to pieces.

"I will leave you alone now."

Finally, Sesshomaru shifted his attention to her. His face devoid of any emotion. If he could feel any at all. His eyes were lost in a point over her head, as if he thought seriously about some topic that did not concern them or the space in which they were into.

"Rin..."

"It's all your fault."

There was no answer from his part. He merely closed his lips in a firm line.

If she were the one who wore her heart in her sleeve, Sesshomaru was the one who did not have a heart at all.

"I hate you."

 **#**

For a moment, only a brief moment, Rin thought that the worst had passed and that that horrible day could never — not ever — get worse.

How wrong she was.

As soon as they left the room and entered the living room in which the entire family was reunited — except for Hiraku who was having a late lunch in in the company of Kagome —, they found themselves in the haughty company of a beautiful demoness.

Even in her diminutive stance, she emanated power and confidence, as if no being alive could ever come closer to her awesomeness. Arrogant. Just like Sesshomaru.

"Mother," he said, standing between the demoness and Rin; if his mother decided to attack, he would be ready to protect her.

InuKimi merely laughed. So loud and so hard, her head fell backwards, her silvery locks dancing hypnotically to the movement. Rin could not help but observe how alike they were — if she thought he were alike his father, she now knew it was because she did not know his mother —, from his golden eyes, to the silvery hair, the haughty posture. Takahashi Sesshomaru was the living copy of his mother, Takahashi InuKimi.

"So… I am a grandmother and no one here bothered to tell me?"

There was no answer to her question. InuKimi snapped her tongue and rose from the sofa, walking towards her son. Sesshomaru stood still as his mother touched the lapels of his blazer and put it in place. He knew what she was doing and it had nothing to do with his clothes.

He narrowed his eyes.

"Where is the half-breed?"

"InuKimi, be reasonable, please…" InuTaisho pleaded; his voice had a hint of warning. "Apologize to Rin."

"Apologize for calling a half-breed a half-breed? Does it hurt that much to hear the truth?"

This time, the answer came faster as a lightening. Rin stepped away from Sesshomaru's back and replied, her voice sharp, "It doesn't, but it's not polite, either. A woman of your class should know better."

There was sepulchral silence for a moment in the living room, but soon it was filled with InuKimi's deliciously loud laughs. Her golden eyes landed on the petite figure, analyzing her critically.

"Then you are the mother of…" she paused for a moment, as if looking for the right words. "my grandson."

"I have a name."

"You are too skinny," InuKimi retorted, touching a raven lock and bringing it to her nose. She inhaled its smell for a second.

"Mother." Sesshomaru's voice was more than an entire warning. In a half step, he approached her and moved her away from Rin; his hand wrapping around her wrist in an iron grip. He would not let her escape. "Let's talk."

 **#**

The silence was unbearable in the study of the Takahashi manor. InuKimi, out of sheer curiosity, touched the books in the shelf. The tomes of ancient history, their history, the inu daiyokais, were all gone, giving way to modernist and postmodernist novels and non-fiction.

She drew in a sharp breath.

Oh, how she hated Izayoi and how she changed everything about the house that one day belonged to her. For centuries, no less.

She removed her perfectly manicured claws from the books — she had just come out from the manicure when InuTaisho told her in a few words that Sesshomaru and the family were in trouble. As much as she hated gossip, she did not need to be a genius to type the words Sesshomaru + scandal in her mobile phone to know what was happening. The social media was bubbling with news of her only son, a marriage and a half-breed in the mix — and shifted her attention back to her son.

"You did not mark her…" she commented, her golden eyes narrowed. "Not permanently."

There was no answer from his part. As expected.

"The hypocrisy of the members of his house is surely something astonishing." She did not suppress a smirk. "You judge your half-breed brother and call him weak, but you are so much weaker than him."

There was silence.

Again.

Sesshomaru had his hands closed in fists by his side. He would not answer. He did not have an answer. What could he say? That she was exaggerating? She was not.

InuKimi was right.

She was always right.

He hated her for that.

He hated himself for that.

He hated that Naraku — his enemy — was out there, doing kami-knows-what while he had to deal with his family and the drama that came with it.

He hated that Rin hated him.

He hated that his son would hate him as soon as he knew of their impeding marriage and of his ancestry — if he did not know already. They were talking of a smart boy, for Kami's sake.

He judged his father not once or twice, but endless times. And look at what happened to him. He fell in love… with Rin and got her pregnant.

The almighty and so proud Sesshomaru did exactly what he judged his father for doing for so many years. He got involved with a human and had a child with her. _A half-breed_. And, just like his father, the idea of staying away from him — the idea of not protecting his son was maddening beyond belief.

Perhaps because of that he had acted that day back in the school…?

He shook his head while he served himself and his mother with a dose of a old whisky _Dalmore Trinitas 64._ She inhaled the drink and smiled.

"The company is in crises, but you serve me one of the most expensive whiskies of the world. Tsk, tsk."

Sesshomaru looked at her over his shoulder; a cold glance that would make anyone stop dead only made InuKimi smirk.

"Easy, I will drink it."

There was silence again between them. Both merely tasted their drinks and said nothing. She stared at her son's back, while he was lost on the grandiose garden just outside those windows.

There was another reason why Sesshomaru resembled his father and he knew his mother was referring to exactly _that._ Even if he did not mean it in the first place, just like InuTaisho, he had abandoned Rin and his son.

Exactly like his father.

Shortly after the divorce — or as soon as he exchanged InuKimi for Izayoi —, InuTaisho left him to his mother and forgot him for decades. Centuries, maybe. And that was probably the reason — no, that was the exact reason — why Sesshomaru hated humans and half-breeds with such a passion.

He had judged his father for that. He promised himself that even if he had children one day he would never abandon them like he had been abandoned and yet…

A hypocrite.

He was a _fucking_ hypocrite.

"When do you intend on bestowing upon her the definite mark?" His mother's voice dragged him out of his thoughts. "Will you really surrender to something so human such as a marriage?"

Sesshomaru took his time to reply. When he did, he surprised both of them.

"I don't intend on marking her."

To his answer there was only silence and then a new explosion of laughter. He kept on staring at her over his shoulder and felt his back tense when she back-hugged him, her head resting on his broad shoulders.

Displays of affection were almost nonexistent on the Takahashi family, at least among the trio InuTaisho, InuKimi and Sesshomaru — the patriarch always seemed willing to demonstrate what he felt for both InuYasha and his human wife —, therefore no one could judge him for being caught off guard when his mother touched him in such a _motherly_ and intimate fashion.

Placing his glass over the old desk, he put his hands over hers in a slightly caress.

"You are a liar, _Maru…_ A terrible liar at that."

 **#**

She was still mulling over the earlier encounter with InuTaisho. She never hated Sesshomaru so much for staying silent.

Sure, he was a silent person, never too prone to waste his time with small talk or useless topics, but he has neither prone to be controlled by anyone. And as much as he wanted that damned marriage to take place, Rin knew he could not want it for real.

Could he?

Why did he stay quiet?

What did InuTaisho held over him to make him agree so quickly and let him come as far as to threaten her? The Sesshomaru she knew would not let anyone threaten her.

 _Then you leave me little choice but to contact my lawyers and petition Hiraku's custody._

But then again, the Sesshomaru she knew could be very well dead.

She shook such thoughts away and walked towards Hiraku's room. Sesshomaru was probably in the office with his mother — and she just expected her to never leave there — and she had little else to do. Izayoi now stared at her with something akin to empathy and a bit of pity. She hated people who pitied her.

InuTaisho was locked up in a business meeting with InuYasha.

Except for Sesshomaru, InuTaisho and his ex-wife, she could not deny his family, to certain degree, cozy. Did she mention his mother?

She still felt her body trembling with rage after the meeting with the haughty woman and the way she called Hiraku a half-breed. She hated how people — demons too — believed they could call her boy by such a hateful and cruel name.

How many times she had found him crying, while still a toddler, because someone had called him a half-breed, a _mutt,_ in the school.

If she could, she would keep InuKimi away from her son.

In light steps, she approached the room in which Hiraku was lead, just to be surprised by the presence of the said demoness stroking his silvery locks. They were sitting in the carpeted floor and Hiraku seemed rather concentrated while they build together the locomotive of the Hogwarts Express.

She bit her bottom lip.

In spite of his cleverness, Hiraku was no more than a six-year-old boy. A child who loved Harry Potter, who could read and write fairly well in his age, but still a child who could be easily bought by anyone who just gave him a new item to his collection. And he wanted that for so long… Something that Rin could not give him since they came to live in Japan and she had to deal with so many different bills…

"You are my grandmother…" he stated in a silent tone. Rin could barely hear him.

InuKimi chuckled. Her fingers did not stop the caress on his silky locks.

"You are a clever one, aren't you?" She touched his forehead, tracing the crest. "Just like your father."

"He is not my father."

The fire in his eyes startled InuKimi for a moment. But in the next she was smirking and then laughing.

 _Yes… just like your father…_ She thought and shook her head. She adored this boy already. It did not go past them the fact Rin was in the room, but neither said anything. For a mere toddler — he was a baby, really —, his senses were very sharpened. And his feelings were quite strong.

She did not remember Sesshomaru being that vehement and strong willed. Perhaps he got that from his mother.

"I hate him," he murmured, making Rin's heart clench where she stood. "I hate them."

In that moment, she thought about entering the room and hold him — he did not mean for sure that he hated her, right? —, but she was stopped by a huge hand resting on hers. She jumped, startled, and if not for having his hand over her mouth, she would have screamed.

"Sesshomaru!" she whispered against his hand; her heart on the verge of leaving her chest. Slowly, he removed his fingers from her lips and landed them on her shoulders; the hand around her wrist remained on the same place.

"Let's go," he said, pulling her to himself. Rin almost fell on her feet. "Leave them alone."

With a nod, she agreed.

It was not like Hiraku wanted to see neither of them so soon.

#

"I thought she hated..." She breathed in rather sharply, looking for the right words. She chose the one who hurt her son the most, " _half-breeds_."

Sesshomaru shook his head after a few seconds.

"She has got talent for drama," he replied, handing her a glass of the same whisky he had served his mother earlier.

"Right…" Rin took it, inhaling the content carefully before tasting it. Her action made him narrow his eyes slightly.

"I will not drug you."

She shrugged.

Silence fell upon them. The only indication she had Sesshomaru paid attention to her gesture was the fact he stared at her intensely. He was angry. Angry with her lack of trust. But when he thought closely of it, how could she trust him? It was not like he ever gave her any reason to.

"How can I be sure Hiraku will be okay with her?"

Sesshomaru did not even think of replying. Rin knew that nothing would befall Hiraku. She knew he would not let his mother hurt him. If he let InuKimi anywhere near him it was because he knew it was fine. Rin had seen that with her own two eyes.

"She did not say anything when he said he hated us," she spat bitterly.

"You are being irrational." His voice was so harsh for a moment she felt her eyes widen.

His golden orbs were fixated on her, pining her on the spot. She swallowed. She knew very well what he meant.

 _What could she have said?_

She sighed.

It was not like Hiraku would like her if she disagreed with him in their very first meeting. Her son was a stubborn little thing. She knew that.

At the present moment, the boy liked his barely known grandmother more than his parents. And if the way he let her touch him — something he always chided Rin for doing — was of any indication…

"She likes him," he commented and filled his glass with the drink. "And you."

"It did not look like that."

The demon accepted her glass and filled it as well.

"She has a very peculiar way of showing when he likes someone."

"Hn."

When Rin realized she had just copied his typical answer and that he was staring at her rather intensely, she could not help but feel her cheeks flush. She cleared her throat.

"When I will be able to go back to my home?"

"You will not."

"What?" She almost let the glass fall. "I mean… My things… The school, where are we staying? At your house?" The questions were all over quick, showing her insecurities and her deep discomfort. "My job?"

Sesshomaru growled at her last question. It was not like she had a job to return to. It was not like he was letting her get anywhere near that damned Onigumo again.

"You will stay here," he replied, managing to sound calm. "We will all stay here."

The answer made her gulp. She could not imagine living in the same place as him, but she knew she had to get used to it. They would get married after all. At least, for now, they would be in the Manor and it was such a relief.

He continued to stare at her with that very intense eyes. It made her spine freeze. She knew what was coming even before he opened his mouth.

"Rin, we need—

"No…" She looked at him and shook her head. "Not now."

 **#**

It was past ten p.m when Rin decided that she had too much energy to spend. Hiraku was sleeping peacefully and, unlike him, she could not close her eyes.

Sadly, she could not approach him while he was awake, but he did not refuse her touch when he fell asleep. When he was mad at her, he would usually dodge her touch as well.

She kissed his forehead lovingly and left his room.

Putting on a light sweatshirt, she decided to go for a job. With some luck, when she returned she could be so tired she would faint on the bed, unable to think twice.

Rin checked for her mobile phone and her phones _beats._ Next, she chose _Oh L'amour_ and put it on repeat mode, leaving the manor as quietly as possible shortly after.

She had to think and in that place she would not be able to. There had to be some solution to that entire situation and if not a solution, at least she had to come with terms to the _yes_ she would be saying in the next… it did not matter how many days later.

The mere idea of coming to term to something she so heartily detested made her hate herself for looking like a human version of Dory and her ridiculous _just keep swimming._

That was not some kind of situation one just had to say _just keep_ _ **fucking**_ _swimming._ But what more could she do really?

With a sigh, she closed the gate and looked at each side of the street. There was no one.

 _Good._

Rin just did not realize she was being followed by a pair of golden eyes.

 **#**

Sesshomaru had just left the dojo in the Takahashi manor when he saw Rin leaving for a jog. Back in Holland, they would always go for a jog at night. Different from him who was used to wake up early to train, Rin preferred to roll in the bed for another hour and get some exercise at night.

It did not take him long to get rid of the training kimono and toss an open sweater over his sweat-soaked white t-shirt, put on some running shoes and follow her through the deserted streets of Minami-Azabu.

Sesshomaru knew Rin could defend herself from any common assault — he had trained her himself for such cases —, but with Naraku on the run, he would stay as closer as possible.

He followed her, to a certain distance, for good twenty minutes in constant jog; his sharp senses attentive to any kind of approach. His hearing focused on the music that kept on repeating on her phones.

 _Erasure…_

He would have smirked if the situation were any different. He had been the one to show her the British duo. He knew them since their formation back at the '80 and had been to some of their shows around the world — one of them in her company.

The lyrics to one of the duo's first hits made him narrow his eyes and think about their situation right now — the trust issues she had, the fear of being abandoned again — and how all of it was his fault.

And what did he do to change that?

 **Nothing,** his inner demon replied.

The mere fact she still wanted him physically meant nothing. Or _almost_ surely did not mean she trusted him or that she did not feel fear when around him.

That she did not hate him.

That she did not think the fact he marked her was just a ploy to get her to say yes to that marriage.

And judging by how silent he became when his father said they _would_ marry… Judging by how still he stood when his father threatened her.

He wanted nothing more than to rip his father's head.

He wanted so many things…

He wanted her to understand his reasons…

He wanted her to forgive him… Even if he had done nothing to earn her forgiveness.

He wanted everything but her fear.

Sesshomaru liked to be feared. He loved it even. It was an indescribable sensation. But there was one person and one person only he did not want to fear him.

He closed his eyes.

He knew he was the only one at fault.

It was his own fear that lead them to that situation.

 **Pathetic. You are pathetic.**

It was not always he agreed with his demon, but this time he could not agree more.

He had been afraid of his feelings for a human and now that he wanted such feeling to bring them back together, all he could get was further apart.

 **Fool.**

He watched her come to a stop and inhale sharply; her hands over her knees and her breath coming out in gasps. He approached her and offered her a bottle of water he always carried when they trained together. Rin never remembered to do that herself.

She cast a sideway glance at him, but shook her head and accepted the bottle. In three big gulps, she swallowed half of the water. Soon, she removed the phones from her head and let them rest on her neck.

"You did not have to follow me."

There was no answer from his part. Not that she expected him to agree with her. He closed the bottle and watched her drying herself with the small towel she produced from her pockets.

The padded headphone kept the music very much alive and playing.

… _No emotional ties_

 _You don't remember my name…_

Utterly ashamed for getting caught listening to that music — he probably heard that the entire path —, Rin paused it and cleared her throat.

"Well… we can return now."

"Hn."

Together, they jogged back home in silence. Sesshomaru followed her rhythm easily. When they only two blocks away he started.

Part of him revolted at the mere thought.

 _His pride._

The other part knew it was the right thing to do.

His consciousness — or the little that was left of it.

"I apologize."

Rin came to a sudden stop. She turned to him so fast it made her neck hurt and the mark burn.

"What?"

Sesshomaru drew in a sharp breath; the air entering his lungs a bit forcefully.

He could barely believe himself.

And there it was.

He was not only afraid to love her in the past, but at the prospect that love changed people. And he did not want to change. He wanted for people to change because of him and not the other way around.

His fear… His greatest fear, perhaps, was change. And end up perceived as weak.

 **Selfish. Arrogant jerk.**

"Forgive me for having abandoned you. What I did was…"

"Unforgivable?" Rin completed for him, making him narrow his eyes and purse his lips into a thin line.

" **Yes."**

The one who agreed with her was not he himself, but his inner demon. He would never agree that he had hurt her so much. It would be a gigantic blow to his ego he was not ready to take just yet.

And he hated his demon for that. He hated _the thing_ for being right when he was wrong. She was right. What he did was unforgivable.

Rin was touched for a moment.

Her ex-lover was not a man prone to apologize. On the contrary, he exerted his power over everyone and demanded things, he never asked for them. To apologize — to ask for forgiveness — was something unprecedented and probably very much painful for the mighty yokai.

It sounded truthful.

But with Sesshomaru — this new Sesshomaru — one could never know.

She bit her bottom lip a bit forcefully.

"If you think that changes anything…"

She stopped before the dangerous flash in his golden eyes. For a moment, she almost saw him trapping her between his body and some of the huge trees around. But he did not move, he did not even seem to be breathing.

Pausing, she thought of her next words. She knew they would hurt the two of them. They were burning her throat even before she spoke them.

"I don't know if I believe in you."

She looked down, unable to face him. The need to cry was just to overwhelming she had trouble controlling herself. She felt his hand touching her chin and later her lips in a small caress that prevented her from bruising them further. A second later the arm fell to his sides.

"Rin…"

"Please..." Her voice was weak already. She did not know how much more she could go own without crying. Her throat burned. "Can't you just leave us alone? Why did you have to come back? I was happy without you." She bit her bottom lip and suppressed a sob. "You will bring nothing but pain to Hiraku."

"You cannot keep me from my son."

She looked up, right into his golden eyes. Hers were shiny with the unshed tears.

"You have never cared about him. You have never lo—

"I did not know about his existence till three weeks ago," he cut her off. His deep voice so imperious made her widen her eyes.

He was right.

It was true.

She could not judge him for his reaction. She knew he hated hanyos. He hated humans with the same passion. She could not expect him to accept Hiraku and love him from night to day.

But she could not let her son — her baby boy — get hurt with his irrational and irascible behavior. She could not let Hiraku suffer for not being loved unconditionally as he deserved by his father because Sesshomaru would always see him as a mere half-breed.

"I am afraid…" she admitted. In the darkness of the streets it was easy to be honest with him. "I am afraid you'll hurt him."

For a moment, the only sound was the one coming from the nocturnal animals around them. From the rustling of the trees. Without even noticing, Rin tapped her finger against her thigh and the music began playing once again. Right in the chorus.

 _Oh l'amour_

 _Broke my heart_

 _And now I'm aching for you_

 _Mon amour_

 _What's a boy in love_

 _Supposed to do?_

With a heavy sigh, almost irritated, she removed her mobile phone from her pocket and turned it off.

"I am sorry."

She expected him to remain in silence, but his next comment made her feel a bit disoriented.

"You are afraid I will hurt you. Again."

Rin closed her eyes.

She wanted to believe in his words. She wanted to believe him so very much it hurt.

But she could not.

"I will not," he promised, his voice deeper than usual.

In the darkened streets it was easier to be open about his feelings.

He had never loved someone before.

Love had always been a feeling that he considered bellow himself. For the weak-minded. Something worthy of losers and Sesshomaru was not a loser.

But yesterday, when Naraku attacked he only knew he needed to protect her. In the past, his father had asked more than once if he had someone to protect.

There was not.

At least not in the past.

Now… He wanted to protect her. He wanted to protect Hiraku.

That should be enough.

"Do not keep me away from you." His voice was solemn now. "Do not keep me away from my son."

"I…" She took a deep breath. "I need some time…" She bit her bottom lip. "I know it sounds ridiculous to ask for a time when your father demanded that we get married, but…"

"Hn."

She was not surprised that was his response. But she knew by now distinguish between the different types of _hn_ he usually let out. And this time it meant she could keep on talking.

"I need to get alone… Without you..." She looked to the sky and then to the ground. To their feet. She could not muster the necessary courage to look at him in the eye. "And I want you to remove this mark."

Finally, she cast a glance at him and found his golden orbs completely focused on her face. A small shiver run down her spine when he used his thumb to trace her cheek slowly.

Before he could do anything else, she placed her finger upon his lips.

He narrowed his eyes.

"I am afraid of..."

"I know…" he whispered against her finger. He knew she was afraid and he hated himself for that. He watched as her beautiful eyes fluttered close. "Rin, I…"

She shook her head. She did not wish for another apology she was not even sure she could believe. And really, there was nothing to apologize for — except for that mark and for being a jerk whenever they interacted, but certainly not for the past, not for letting her go. Couples break up and get together again… It was mostly natural and he just did not love her as she had loved him.

Rin did not judge him, but she could not help but feel afraid.

"I still love you…" The confession came out of her lips in a whisper. His thumb over her skin was the best sensation in the universe. "But I am afraid."

"Rin..."

"That's why I am asking for some time." She breathed deeply again and opened her eyes. "And that's why I beg of you to remove this mark. I don't care what were your reasons in the first place… Just… Just remove it."

Before he could come up with an answer, she kissed his cheek and went back on jogging; the headphones in place and the music in the repeat mode. The tears were freely running down her face.

Astonished, Sesshomaru watched her jog, not knowing what to do.

The confession caught him off guard. Undoubtedly, what shocked him the most was not the fact she said she loved him and ask for a break, but the realization that he, too, loved her.

And mainly the realization that he, just like her, was afraid.

Afraid of losing her and, above anything else, afraid of loving her.

* * *

 **A/N – Tada! What do you guys think?**

 **I loooove Erasure very much and this is one of my favorite songs of them. I think it fits our couple quite well.**

 **I know Rin doesn't sound so mad, it's because she is tired. I hope that doesn't sound so very OOC. Considering that we only know Rin as a child, it's difficult to predict how she would react in certain circumstances.**

 **For those interested in Hiraku's reaction to Sesshomaru being his father, don't worry… It will come in the next chapter xD**

 **And will he respect Rin's wishes? It's been more than three weeks already, so they the beauty and the beast will change places again. What do you think Sesshomaru's reaction will be when he finds out Rin is a demoness while he is human?**

 **I don't have much more to say… Except that I'm tired and I'm going to sleep. I hope you enjoy this chapter and if you feel like it, do leave me a review. I'd appreciate any word from you.**

 **I hope to update in the next 15 days.**

 **Till then, take care,**

 **Velvetsins.**


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